The desire to update, infuse life and excitement, and attract new festival goers to Ithaca was the starting point of rebranding. After preliminary explorations, It was decided by the festivals board that they did not want to let go of the core of their well known, but aged logo. But everything from there was open to exploration.

My work started with working closely with the Executive Director, examining the festivals history, going back to the 60’s. Understanding how the organization got to where they are and the integration with the community formed the basis of my focus. the logo that had been developed in the 70’s had been copied so many times using traditional camera techniques through the 70’s’s and the 80’s that it was looking very worn and tired and a bit stretched. As we only had this version to start with and the board was very firm that we hold onto this portion of their history, I started with redrawing and cleaning up the old logo and the custom typography using old photostats of the old version as a guide. 

The ED decided in our process that the organization needed to refocus on its original charter of being an "arts festival". As this was nowhere in their branding, this needed to feel like it was a natural part of the design.

After extensive research, I decided that color was the way to infuse liveliness and fun. I presented the newly refreshed logo in a new branding scheme based on 5 bright and fun hues, developing a new identity system from there. 

Utilizing digital printing processes, we were able to propose an identity system that changed colors, yet together created a whole. Each business card, name tag, letterhead, would change in one of the 5 hues. Those colors were extended out to the festival collateral, website, and the swag we developed with the festival.

• Branding, logo, identity system, web design, festival branding, swag, festival schedule design for print and web.