Balticbest 2018 by BOND

Balticbest 2018

Making a small festival big

Balticbest is a boutique design festival and an awards show. They wanted to expand beyond the Baltic states by opening the competition to all small countries with a population of less than 5 million.

As the festival is celebrating “big ideas from small countries”, the best way to help the festival generate global awareness was to illustrate the very essence of the festival itself. A big idea can make a small festival big, too.

Due to this change of concept we created a new identity that speaks both to design and advertising communities, globally. Something, that universally celebrates small countries and big ideas.

More Info

client:

Balticbest

contributions:

Identity design

Brand strategy

Strategy

Art direction

Motion design

Web design

Copywriting

awards:

TDC Certificate of Typographic Excellence 2018

Best of Estonian Advertising and Design, Gold Award, 2019

industry:

Events & Festivals

The identity had to also work as a marketing campaign.

The starting point was more than challenging, since Balticbest had no awareness outside the region. And the usual story of having great ambitions, yet no budget to match, alongside a crazy schedule. Because of these restrictions, the identity itself needed to be bigger than just an identity, functioning as a marketing campaign too. But as quite often, challenges and limitations can also help distill ideas to their purest form, which is exactly what happened. Consequently we made Balticbest bbolder than ever, creating a brand new, copy driven platform that is simple yet powerful.

Power of repetition.

To keep the focus clear, the visual language was stripped of any decor, concentrating on the matter instead of the form. Playing with industry cliches and relying on the power of repetition but at the same time constantly adding new layers and twists. B&W colour palette and no-nonsense grotesque Messina Sans typeface formed the basis of the identity. Screen as one of the main platforms for the communication meant that the assets should be anything but static. Hence motion is not an after-thought here. It supports every copy through transitions and interaction of elements. The sometimes literal, sometimes abstract approach helped to build a non-linear marketing narrative that made the most out of every single message. Celebrating bbig ideas from all the small countries.

“To be honest, we attended because of the new identity!”

&andstudio

Bb there or bb square, we said and they did come. For this reason, no wonder the client immediately saw the bold beauty of our work too. The icing on the cake of course being the fact that the project keeps on giving, as premeditated, already paving the road for Balticbest 2019. The identity has been showcased in numerous portals, blogs and publications very relevant to the target group, generating global earned media coverage. Something that is invaluable for a small boutique festival with global aspirations, and worth much more than the initial media budget for the 2018 activities.

Immediate results.

The new identity and marketing campaign gave immediate positive signals - some of the entrants of the festival even signalled the new identity being the main reason to take part. Street credibility is an amazing thing. Thinking of the next year, all the visibility that the identity and case has generated whether through design blogs or competition success, like receiving the Certificate of Typographic Excellence from TDC is expected to make a big difference.