2023glsl · computer-graphics · freelance

Brand Shaders

A GLSL-driven visual identity system for Amsterdam event organisation Kraft und Licht, generating renders and looping animations that flex across every social format under one recognisable brand.

The finished event banner for "Der Hintergarten" (13.05, Kraft und Licht x Future Intel): a moss-and-root-covered sphere render composited with the full line-up.
01

Overview

Kraft und Licht, a recurring Amsterdam electronic-music event brand (sometimes co-billed with other promoters, such as Future Intel), commissioned a shader-driven visual identity for its social media output between January and April 2023, freelance work independent of any studio. Rather than a one-off logo-and-colours brief, this was ongoing per-event motion-graphics work: each event, "Der Hintergarten" and "Noordwaards" among them, got its own GLSL render composited with that event's line-up and date into a full set of deliverables — event banner, Facebook cover, Instagram story, and vertical/square video reels and posts.

02

Approach

I designed a suite of GLSL shaders producing both static renders and looping animations, with multi-format output front of mind from the start: each shader's composition and aspect ratio were built to work across portrait, square, and landscape crops without manual adjustment per placement, so the same render could become a banner, a Facebook cover, an Instagram story, or an animated reel just by recomposing typography and lineup text over it.

Instagram story crops across two events: the "Noordwaards" asteroid render glowing red against black, and "Der Hintergarten"'s moss-and-mushroom-covered sphere, both built from the same underlying shader system.
Instagram story crops across two events: the "Noordwaards" asteroid render glowing red against black, and "Der Hintergarten"'s moss-and-mushroom-covered sphere, both built from the same underlying shader system.
03

Consistency across a season

Different events called for different moods, so the core design challenge was keeping visually distinct animations cohering under one identity. Each shader draws from a shared palette and structural language, giving Kraft und Licht's output a consistent look across an entire season of events rather than a one-off campaign.

Standalone hero render of the moss-and-mushroom sphere, used across event advertisements.
Standalone hero render of the moss-and-mushroom sphere, used across event advertisements.
04

Reflection

The system's real test was reuse: a shader language built for one identity had to keep producing fresh-feeling output, event after event, without drifting off-brand. Working at the level of shared palette and structure rather than fixed compositions is what let the same underlying system answer to different moods.