Ponderooza Music & Art Festival | Work

Concept project, 2022. Ponderooza is a self-initiated concept, not a real festival. The concept line-up uses real artists as placeholders, and this work is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or commissioned by any artist, label, or organisation named on it.

Client: Self-initiated concept
Sector: Music festival branding
Year: May 2022
Scope: Identity, illustration, poster, trifold brochure, wayfinding, merchandise

The problem

A new cross-genre festival in the BC interior, launching against established events. It needed to look like it belonged in the landscape rather than a generic festival brand dropped into it.

The approach

I used animals to stand in for festival goers, which gave the brand a cast instead of a logo. The whole thing sits against wildfire imagery, because the festival concept tied to wildfire awareness in the region.

The system

Cover page of the written design brief: the event overview, the slogan Revive the River, and a contact block — Brief to brand: I wrote the design brief first, then built a moodboard from photos of the real Kettle River site. The palette comes from the place, and three typefaces handle the wordmark, headings and body.

Moodboard: the Twisted River and Rush the Kettle logos, river tubes carrying a speaker and a guitar, pine cones, the bear on a tube, and photos of the river and a wildflower meadow — Brief to brand: I wrote the design brief first, then built a moodboard from photos of the real Kettle River site. The palette comes from the place, and three typefaces handle the wordmark, headings and body.

Pencil layout sketch of the poster: boxes for the festival name, three days of acts, and promoter logos, with notes down the side — Festival poster: pencil sketches set the layout and scene before I built the illustration in Illustrator. The river runs through the whole poster because the festival raises money to restore it.

Pencil scene sketch: the stage across the river, a moose and a bear in sunglasses floating on tubes — Festival poster: pencil sketches set the layout and scene before I built the illustration in Illustrator. The river runs through the whole poster because the festival raises money to restore it.

Hand-drawn zone map of the Kettle River site on lined paper, with stages, vendors and camping marked in coloured pencil — Wayfinding: zones sketched by hand, checked against site photos, then blocked out in colour. The final map uses colour-coded camping zones, a 20+ icon legend and character callouts; a simpler brochure map shows the routes in.

Map moodboard: the festival characters, the badge, a photo of the rail bridge over the river and the hand-drawn zone map — Wayfinding: zones sketched by hand, checked against site photos, then blocked out in colour. The final map uses colour-coded camping zones, a 20+ icon legend and character callouts; a simpler brochure map shows the routes in.

A sheet of paper folded into three panels, sketched in pencil with ticket, accommodation and festival rules sections — Trifold brochure: a folded paper mock sized every panel before layout in InDesign. Tickets, camping, safety, directions, line-up, schedule and vendors, all on one sheet.

The folded paper mock held up to show the cover panel, sketched with the festival name and a rail track running into the distance — Trifold brochure: a folded paper mock sized every panel before layout in InDesign. Tickets, camping, safety, directions, line-up, schedule and vendors, all on one sheet.

Circular badge showing a bear on an inner tube drifting past a burnt orange sunset and pine trees — Merch: five original vector graphics, each built to print clean at any size, shown on tees, a cap, flip-flops, a backpack, stickers and a wristband pass.

A black bear sitting at a picnic table with a drink and a stack of pancakes — Merch: five original vector graphics, each built to print clean at any size, shown on tees, a cap, flip-flops, a backpack, stickers and a wristband pass.

Illustrated bear standing on a moose, arm raised, against a pink and blue gradient sky — Every character went into a library as I drew it, which is why the same cast turns up on the poster, the flag and the merch.

In application

Bus shelter ad at night on a city street, carrying the Ponderooza poster — Campaign: one key visual across a billboard, bus shelter, stage banner, flag and foam hand. The line-up stays readable at road distance.

Concept

Self-initiated concept work. No client brief, which means every constraint on it is one I set myself and every decision is defensible on its own terms. It stays in the portfolio because it's the clearest example of the system-building side of how I work.

Need a launch cut or a sound to go with it? That gets built here too. The sound

Next project

Brand identity for a mobile food business that had to be seen before it could be tasted.

Read the case study

At a Glance

The Problem

What the Brand Is Made Of

Out in the World

What Happened Next

Wifey with a Knifey