Zach McKee - Life is Beautiful 2022

HOW DO YOU TURN A FESTIVAL NIGHT INTO A CORE MEMORY?
YOU LET THE CITY’S NEON WRITE THE STORY.

In 2022, Life is Beautiful returned to downtown Las Vegas for another three-day, multi-stage edition, framed around a theme that blended nostalgia for past moments with the thrill of creating new ones. The visual world pulled from the Vegas twilight palette, hazy glows, and the iconic neon bulbs that make the city feel both dreamlike and familiar, aiming to capture those foggy but meaningful late-night memories.

I drew from the mood of “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd and the surreal energy of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” to shape the creative direction, grounding the identity in a neon-soaked, slightly distorted view of downtown. The 2022 system had to evolve the decorative neon bulb typography from our sold-out 2021 show into something more legible at scale, while keeping the electric signage character that people recognized. Type hierarchy, glow treatments, and controlled motion were the main levers so the identity stayed cinematic and vibrant without becoming muddy or unreadable across digital, print, and on-site applications.

Throughout the season, I led design across marketing campaigns, printed flyers, large-scale banners, wayfinding, on-site signage, and merchandise, making sure the system held together from social feeds to festival streets. I collaborated with internal teams and major partners including Amazon Music, Toyota, Twitch, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, 7-Eleven, Ghost Energy, White Claw, and others, so each brand’s presence felt native to the 2022 world rather than dropped in as off-the-shelf sponsorship.