The Problem

9 years running, The Halifax Urban Folk Festival is a week-long musical series organized by The Carleton’s Mike Campbell. The festival occupies a unique space in a city already rich in local music heritage — beginning at the end of August, as a celebration of folk music and artists who create it, it takes place across several intimate venues, with big-name songwriter circles on the weekend supporting talent from both home and away. The HUFF team approached our agency for the first time in 2013, early on in the festival’s history, to help create an identity that would make it a household name at the street level.

The Project

My agency’s team have defined the festival’s identity for the past 6 years, and I took them on as a client independently starting in 2016. I am a lifelong alternative/independent music supporter at the local level, and in the adolescence of my creative career, my one goal was to design album art and gig posters for the bands I would go see live at local clubs and small venues. Unfortunately, that is not a niche that everyone can work in and reliably pay their bills, but when HUFF rolls around every year, I am privileged with the opportunity to make rock ’n roll design once again. I’ve developed and evolved this brand over the years to encompass the independent, workmanlike spirit of the musicians that make the festival what it is, including collateral that echoes the classic look of cheaply-printed, artfully-made gig posters of iconic indie musicians and bands.