THE DEBUT

A person wearing “The Debut” shirt

Beginnings and endings. The rebirth of a star. House Of Portway and the emerging unofficial duo team up again to continue their story. The first chapter, "The Farewell" was a grounded and intimate goodbye to Birmingham's beloved duo. For their London debut, the mandate was rebirth: to launch IX & Balli on a new stage and city. The design needed to be bold, and impossible to ignore — a declaration that a star had been reborn.

The creative direction for this concert was born from a fusion of retrofuturistic aesthetics. The initial spark came from the gradient-mapped metallic mask on The Weeknd’s ‘Live at SoFi Stadium’ album cover, which sent us down a rabbit hole exploring 80s design tropes: chrome textures, robotics, and vibrant gradients. The vision was fully realized upon discovering Shin Ishizuka’s iconic poster for GEZAN. His use of layered, black, blue, green, and yellow flames directly inspired the complex, shape-based background, creating a perfect marriage of metallic futurism and raw, graphic energy.

Official Poster for “The Debut”

The logomark for "The Debut" integrates a star as a visual separator instead of a space — elegantly dividing the phrase while establishing a core visual motif. This star is then systematically repeated throughout the entire identity creating a cohesive and recognisable brand language.

A deliberate nuance is the use of two distinct star designs in the header and footer. This subtle choice reflects the artists' unique identities, symbolising that while they reunite as a powerful duo, they remain two distinct individual stars.

The typographic choice of  "Old London" provides an immediate geographic anchor, offering a classic yet unmistakable nod to the city hosting their inaugural performance.