Thursday, 30 January 2014

New look for Arts Festival

Hebden Bridge Arts Festival has a new look thanks to design student Anthony Gibson who beat off a strong field to win the brief - see above.

Anthony Gibson is a first year design student at Bradford College and took on over 30 competitors to create an new logo he felt captured the spirit of the Festival.

The open competition was organised by board member David Burnop who lectures at the college.

David said: "The students were given a very clear brief by the festival and we brought them to Hebden for a site visit to really get a sense of what makes the town so unique. They went away to work on their designs and we expected them to produce a complete rebranding package to professional standards."

Board member David Burnop with design student Anthony Gibson

Once the students has produced their portfolio they pitched their designs to Festival Director Helen Meller plus board members Kate Kershaw and David Burnop.

Helen says: "We were amazed at the quality and variety of the ideas presented by students at very different stages in their design courses. It was fascinating seeing the town and the festival reflected back at us from so many angles: there were heraldic shields, abstracts, map contours, quirky characters. It was a really tough job whittling it down to the final shortlist of six."

Board members voted on the final six and in a close race, Anthony Gibson's tent design was selected.

'More than anything, this said arts festival to us so come join in and have a great time - it's fun, inclusive, participatory and surprising,' says Helen.

Anthony Gibson said: "I'm a youth worker by trade and doing this course is the first step on a new journey for me so I'm absolutely delighted to have won the competition. I'm really looking forward to coming to the festival and seeing my design all over Hebden Bridge which is the perfect shop window for me as a designer."

The new logo will be unveiled at the end of January as the team prepare for the 2014 festival which runs from 27 June to 5 July and the first acts are expected to be announced next month.

Previously, the Festival on the HebWeb

• HebWeb News: Budding Playwrights Wanted! (20 January 2014)
• HebWeb News: Festival Board thanks Festival volunteers, and the HebWeb (21 July 2013)
• HebWeb News: Latest from the Festival (26 June 2013)