Camille Walala's colourful Montreux Jazz Festival poster is designed like a piece of music

Due to take place from 1 to 16 July 2022, the Montreux Jazz Festival has a proud heritage of attracting top artistic talent when it comes to designing its poster. Previous alumni include Keith Haring, Milton Glaser and Andy Warhol, while Camille's poster follows the design Marylou Faure created for its 55th edition earlier this year.

Described by event organisers as a "polyphony of electric colours and dancing shapes", Camille's vibrant, geometric poster perfectly sets the tone for the next edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival. A mix of pop art and constructivism, the digital collage embodies the energy of the festival and its music by "exploring its contrasts and diversity."

The 2022 programme of the festival is still under wraps until next spring, but the flowing, straight and overlapping shapes give an impression of what audiences can expect musically. By combining solid colours and areas textured with patterns like confetti, Camille has effectively turned the musical motifs of performers into a visual representation. And in a more literal approach, the bars of black and white stripes evoke the keys of a piano.

Camille says: "For the Festival poster, I wanted to convey movement and rhythm with dancing shapes and a wide variety of colours. I have several notebooks full of various patterns and motifs that form the basis of my visual vocabulary. Like a piece of music, I use these different contrasting elements to find a balance, a harmony."

Unlike posters for other musical festivals, which squeeze their visuals in order to make room for the names of the acts, the Montreux Jazz Festival does not work with such constraints. Instead, international artists have been given free rein to design their official posters however they want since 1967.

In 1982, Jean Tinguely left his indelible mark, which later went on to become the festival's instantly recognisable logo, while Keith Herring designed three versions in 1983 and went on to create another one in collaboration with Andy Warhol in 1986. In 1995 David Bowie got involved, and more recently, Yoann Lemoine (Woodkid), Christian Marclay, and JR have all submitted designs.

Camille Walala is the 51st artist to design the official Montreux Jazz Festival poster. Among her favourites of the pantheon of previous designs includes the art of Malika Favre and Marylou Faure, two French friends she met in London.