Darwin Festival
From a new and inspired programming direction, to a hot, newly designed identity – and everything in between – Darwin Festival returns with a bang!
By Claire Eltringham
The highly anticipated 18 day Festival returns with a program set to please the proverbial palates of all art, theatre, music and dance lovers. Under the creative direction of new Artistic Director Andrew Ross, the expert knowledge of General Manager Mark Crees, and the hard work of a highly dedicated Festival team, the 2015 players deliver a highly inspiring program to scratch your arts and cultural Festival itch.
Enjoy the perfectly performed talents of Live Live Cinema, as they re-voice multiple characters in cult classic Little Shop of Horrors; sample the fusion of jazz and classical music with Vicissitudes, described as ‘a match made in musical heaven’; get your giggle fix with a comedian who think fast and moves slowly, Hannah Gadsby; feast your eyes upon Indigenous artworks of excellence as part of the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards and its controversial counterpart the Salon des Refusés; and much, much more!
Not only does the program take a new creative direction this year – the graphic design has had a full overhaul too. Teaming up with Boab Design (the studio that also worked with Off The Leash for our redesign earlier this year), Darwin Festival now has a full visual identity to launch in 2015.
For most design agencies in the Territory, this has long been a coveted project to secure and this was no exception for Boab Design, a studio that has carved out a reputation in the Territory for powerful, intelligent design. According to Boab Design’s Managing Director, Brett Jacobs, this was a dream come true for the studio. ‘We had been wanting to get our hands on this job for some time now. Darwin Festival is the premier arts and cultural event in the Territory so it’s a great place to show our branding strength.’
‘Boab lives and breathes brand. For us to not only create the new Darwin Festival brand identity, but to then partner with the Festival to develop and grow the visual identity has been an incredible project – we just can’t wait to see it all in place in a few weeks!’, said Jacobs.
Boab Design Creative Director Mike Frier was an integral part of the project. According to Mike, the challenge was to create an identity that would meet many needs. ‘The greatest challenge was definitely striking the balance between something that was clean, clear and sophisticated whilst still expressing the right amount of fun’, said Frier.
Many people may not realise this but acting as the Brand Design Partner for Darwin Festival is more than just designing a new logo and program guide. The Boab creative team was supported by their highly experienced account management team who oversaw the wide-scale implementation of the new visual identity across everything from the street banners and caravan decoration, through to the artists' lanyards and street signage.
What’s clearly evident through the new-look Darwin Festival is how valuable it is to have a local studio on the job. ‘It’s all about knowing the audience’, as Frier suggests, ‘great design isn’t created in a vacuum, it needs to reflect the brand personality and resonate with people – it has to work hard!’
Unique, beautiful and created by locals, this year’s Festival certainly is a full house of talent to behold.
Boab Design | 2/1 Shepherd Street Darwin | 8941 1799
Darwin Festival | darwinfestival.org.au | Thu 6 - Sun 23 Aug
