Festival flag flying against a blue sky, carrying a circular badge of a bear floating on an inner tube
Work

Identity for a cross-genre festival in the BC interior, built around a cast of animals.

Personal spec project. Ponderooza is not a real festival, and this work is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or commissioned by any artist, label, or organisation named on the poster.

Client

Personal spec project

Sector

Music festival branding

Year

May 2022

Scope

Identity, illustration, poster, apparel, merchandise, wayfinding

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

Circular badge showing a bear on an inner tube drifting past a burnt orange sunset and pine trees
The badge lockup. Circular so the mark holds at any size, from a flag down to a cap.
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 embroidery.
Spec festival poster. Fictional event, no artist affiliation.
Spec festival poster. Fictional event, no artist affiliation. Drawn in Illustrator over a sketch, foreground first, working back. Each day of the weekend gets its own brand colour.
Illustrated site map of the festival grounds with a river running through and numbered stages
Laid over the BC Parks map of the Kettle River rec site so the distances are real. Custom brushes for the aerial trees, official government symbols in the legend.

In application

  • Embroidered cap

  • Longsleeve

  • Tee

  • Backpack

  • Wristband and pass system

  • Flip flops

  • Programme brochure

  • Stickers

  • Crowd prop

  • Site signage

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