As the world navigated the challenges brought on by the pandemic, in-person events and festivals took a huge hit. The Melbourne International Jazz Festival was no exception. However, the team behind the festival refused to give up and worked tirelessly to find ways to keep the festival alive. And in 2022, they were finally able to bring back the joy and excitement of live events and Motherbird — was behind the branding and visual identity for the festival.
To mark this momentous occasion, the festival's organizers enlisted the help of branding experts to create a brand that perfectly captured the spirit of the festival's emergence. The goal was to create a brand that exuded energy, spirit, and dynamism.
The branding project started with extensive research to understand the festival's target audience, history, and values. The team also looked at other successful festival brands for inspiration.
The team ultimately settled on a vibrant, colorful brand identity that featured bold typography and an abstract design that captured the movement and dynamism of jazz music. The branding elements were used across all festival materials, including posters, billboards, social media, and merchandise.
The Melb Int’l Jazz Fest's emergence was a triumph in the face of adversity, and the festival's branding perfectly captured the festival's spirit of resilience, energy, and dynamism. The festival will undoubtedly continue to be a staple in Melbourne's cultural calendar for years to come.
Branding artifacts
Let’s dance
Music has many dimensions, the more you listen, the more you uncover. We worked with 3D2D to build a three-dimensional, moving, evolving and dancing brand. From each motion piece we derived a series of still images, giving the brand the flexibility to always reinterpret itself – much like jazz.
Reaching new audiences
With jazz continuing to fuse with new music it inevitably reaches new audiences, primarily a younger demographic. With this comes the expectation that the delivery of the festival needs to evolve with its audience. A clear focus for the 2022 festival was to build a stronger online presence, meaning we needed to ensure the brand was captivating, shareable and relevant. Working with the team at Common State we devised a digital strategy that allowed a flexible brand system to be rolled out. This resulted in a staggering 42% of the audience being first time attendees.
For more information make sure to check out Motherbird’s website or follow them on Behance or Instagram.
