Warriors have been taking care of Graphic Design Festival Scotland’s communication, branding and design since founding in 2014.

This involves the festival's communication strategy; annually refreshing the brand identity, website, social media and campaigns across print, digital and environment.

The 2016 branding and campaign generated international media attention and raised the profile of the festival to welcome a record number of 30,000+ visitors.

Featured on It's Nice That, Grafik, Creative Review, Idn World, Etapes and British Council.

Awarded GOLD at Graphis Awards, New York and Scottish Design Awards Post Category winner.

• Capture the imagination of the design industry
• Generate attention globally
• Building hype around a relatively new event
• Communicating practical information around the events
• Sell tickets

In the name of innovation and collaboration within an industry which is always changing, we invited our friends at Freytag Anderson to work with us on the identity and campaign – embodying the collaborative attitude of the festival.

The festival is a platform for creative expression and experimentation, so we recognised that the identity should capture those same processes. We wanted to create something which is more than a functional identification tool for the festival, but create something something which is living, evolving representing the raw energy and creativity that the festival provides.

We wanted to create something which is more than a functional identification tool for the festival, but is living, evolving and representing the raw energy and creativity which the festival is built on.

We're very aware of designers’ tendencies to present polished resolved work all of the time, but the journey and process are equally as important and can also be equally as interesting.

We created an identity and campaign exploring the process and dialogue which unfolds as ideas are developed, visualised and explored. This is about the journey as opposed to the destination.

As the identity focused on process we documented everything we created; initial ideas, sketches, unfinished artwork, Skype conversations, email transcripts and even screen records as the work was designed.

This documentation of our process then became the visual assets for poster executions accented with a deliberately exposed grid system to offer some structure and calm amongst the chaos.

The collaboration initially produced 20 posters, a number which grew as the project developed.

To expand the collaborative aspect of the identity, we made the source files public, inviting designers around the world to download them, reimagine the concept themselves and contribute to the on-going dialogue.

An area on the festival website allowed visitors to download the files and then submit the posters they produce back onto the website to be considered for inclusion in the final print run.

We encouraged participants to explore the key themes of the identity and visualise the notions of disruption, collaboration, friction and the marriage of new ideas.

It's Nice That published an article about the campaign and also invited designers to contribute here.

83 different designers from 15 countries including Australia, Denmark and Canada submitted their work to the online gallery which you can see here.

The following 8 posters were selected and included in the final print run. Designed by Ashley Moye, Burcu Salıcı, Nicola Narbone, Laurine Félicité, Mathias Skafte Andersen, Sam Longmire and Stephan Idé.

Festival attendees were offered the chance to physically browse through the development work and documentation from the identity giving more insight into the collaborative process.

The visual style of the identity and collaborative concept was carried through to the website where visitors can discover the programme, purchase tickets, submit to the poster competition, contribute to the identity and keep up to date with festival activities.

The website is featured on Site Inspire and Httpster which "showcase the finest web and interactive design".