Visual Identity

Current Freedom Festival

The current freedom festival house style is made up of very bright, lively colour palate with their whole brand and promotional material built around muted pinks, purples, yellows and blues which lends itself a very soft appearance and makes the event seem warm and welcoming. The social media adverts and posters, as a majority, include basic illustrations of non-human characters that are assumed to appeal towards young children who are accustomed towards these mascots that they also see within TV programmes and their own toys. This marketing approach includes the younger generation, however doesn’t seem particularly engaging with adults who, most likely, wont be interested with what it seems the Freedom Festival has to offer. The illustrations of mascots across the promotions also don’t seem to hold much resemblance to one another which discounts any brand recognisability the mascots may have been designed for as there are too many to keep track of from the viewers perspective. Overall, the campaign doesn’t seem to accurately promote the event as it may differ too heavily from stereotypical festival branding that it loses the whole festival identity and replaces it with something that looks more similar to adverts promoting a children’s group play event.

The typography chosen for the logo also seems to be too basic for what the Freedom Festival are trying to accomplish with their event. The dull, blocky typeface doesn’t seem to hold any ideas of a “transformative” or “ground-breaking” brand and slightly fails to accurately represent the unique experience that the festival tries to encompass. The “Festival Arts Trust” also doesn’t really ignite any creativity within the viewer due its very standard and almost lifeless looking typeface.

Moodboards

To begin with I wanted the Freedom Festival brand to move in a much more “artsy”, creative direction so it can more appropriately align with the companies brand pillars whilst also not looking too childish. I wanted to create a slightly more mature colour palate by subduing the current house style into one with more yellowish, red hues that appear welcoming but slightly more elevated and cohesive than the current palate which has great disparities between the colours. However, in practice, the execution of these colours may not be as effective as I would like as they’re still quite on the lighter side which wont help as an inclusive experience for the viewer as the contrast between the type and the background would be too low.

I wanted to try and make my second mood board have a more grunge/gritty feel to it to really highlight the rawness of the festival and how Hull’s history as a city has influenced the core ideas and the brand pillars of the festival. This house style is a complete opposite to the original design with it featuring much darker, heavier colours with a more bleak and old fashioned feel to it. By taking out some of the child-like elements of the current design I believe this would target an older demographic, however by doing this it might rule out the younger generation at the same time.

Final Moodboard

In the end I decided to opt for a neon design aesthetic as I wanted more of a middle-ground between my two previous moodboards; something with a bit more edge and “gritty-ness” as to elevate it from the current design but also an approach that still includes vibrant colours but links more to the colours that can actually be seen at the freedom festival. I liked this choice as it allowed me to be creative, typography wise, with the lettering mimicking that of the classic luminous sign. I felt as though this aesthetic itself gave a sense of community and togetherness as it reminded me of of signage that you might see at local pub/bar where you can meet with friends and family to connect, something common in Hull. I also thought about how the lighting iconography could lend itself to the idea of being switched on and off which I could incorporate into possible animations.

To make the visual identity look a bit more gritty and raw I’ve included images of slightly warn streets/walls which I believe make it appear more local and welcoming to the average city residents who are familiar with the rainy streets.

Logo & Emblem

For the re-design I wanted a lot of the visual iconography to revolve around the neon signs so I can use them as logo’s for promotional adverts but also integrate them into the actual photos reality to make it look more immersive and strengthen the brands recognisability. I alternated between multiple different styles with the typeface I created to see which would work the best compositionally as well as various colour schemes for different backgrounds.

I used a blocky, rustic font for the typeface as I felt it conveyed the impact of freedom festival more efficiently than a thin serif font would. I then tried to be as creative as I could with the concept as I believe that’s what the current design lacks despite being the face of a brand promoting artistry and diversity.

Multi-channel Promotion

Here I’ve created a quick design that could be used for advertisement on social media using words associated with the festival whilst also spelling freedom down the middle. I like the simplicity of it and think it looks recognisable enough to be used as a part of the promotion. At the same time it also reinforces what the festival stands for however I could develop this by using words that have stronger connections to the event.

For these two instagram posts I’ve used the neon iconography from the logo within them and tried to use it to further represent the “electric” energy that the festival has to offer. I wanted to use the first design as a post that be used to promote at the very beginnings, before anyone may have heard of it as the symbolism of the paper being ripped away can show us how the date of the freedom festival is getting closer and closer. My second design can be used as a post but alternatively a design that could be worn on bucket hats, t-shirts or other merchandise that can be related to a festival to support the brand identity.

Typography

The typography used on a design/product is one of the most important aspects from a viewers perspective. It helps entice customers in and want to not only look at the design but to engage with it as the way the text is displayed can illicit certain reactions from groups of people. The font, weight, alignment, colour, contrast and hierarchy all play a part in constructing type in an appealing way that fits the brand values and identity. Due to how certain fonts have been used in a historical and cultural context can also affect how the media is perceived. For example, serif fonts has a vast artistic heritage due to it deriving from the Greek and Latin alphabet that gives it a more elegant and classic look. On the other hand sans serif fonts have only been popularised in the recent modern era, automatically making the viewer associate it with a more contemporary style.

When designing typography that will be used to advertise it’s important that it is legible as to not deter potential customers its hard to read. For example the website on the left utilises white space to help draw the readers eye to the text, as well as underline and increase the point size of important information that the designers want to have more impact. The right image is different in this aspect as it’s a lot more busy to look at however they are able to to make the type readable due to the bright bold text as well as solid colour beneath it.

Adverts