Festival brand design

Mixing exclusivity with the allure of a British summer’s day, we created a festival brand design that helped our client successfully launch an exciting new event in the season’s calendar.

Background

Cambridge, a city steeped in history, has been steadily growing in the last few years thanks to their world-class reputation for innovation in science and research. With an ever-expanding population with very specific expectations of their lifestyle in the city, The Cambridge Club had identified a gap in its cultural landscape – a music, food and drink festival.

The event, to take place at the start of summer at an exclusive venue, and mainly targeted at the over-35s, had quality gins, real ales and cocktails on offer, as well as prosecco and champagne bars, food from local independent traders, and three music stages.

^{Actor, comedian, DJ, and television and radio presenter Craig Charles.}

Challenge

The Cambridge Club asked us to design an iconic identity to not only make the festival appeal to a sophisticated audience, the new brand also had to create enough differentiation with another festival, planned for the day before at the same location.

Solution

We created a festival brand design that made a success of the festival even before it opened, thanks to a style that mixes exclusivity with the allure of a traditional British summer’s day.

Starting with a strong identity that would attract attention, we designed a logo that evokes the shape of a crest, immediately getting across that this is not like other festivals.

Inspired by the natural ingredients needed to create the range of drinks on offer, we developed an identity that was used in promotional launch materials and also dotted around the festival grounds.

The earthy colours and textures of flowers, lemons, peaches and grapes evoke the opulence of a Caravaggio still life, and give the design a classic and historic feel – so at home in Cambridge – while a layer of sheen transmits the vibrancy and freshness of a summer music festival.

Our client maximised the poster design by using it to not only promote the line-up, but also individual artists.