Canadian Tulip Festival

Branding. Packaging. Print Design. Environmental Design.

Design Thinking

The National Tulip Festival is a celebration dedicated to celebrating the long-lasting friendship between Canada and the Netherlands. A branding redesign was completed to simplify the logo and help the overall branding become both more cohesive and more appealing to a wider audience. Posters and other designs were created using a style emulating off-set printing and textures to add a sense of dimension and history to the work. The created illustrations capture the history of the festival, while standing banners help explain it's past and the efforts of it's charitable foundation.

Project Backstory

This project was created for a school brief for a studio class. The brief asked students to look at the RGD Association’s student award categories and to select a category to design a project for. Students selected a category, designed a new project and brief and selected all deliverables they created. This project was designed for the placemaking category for the RGD Student Awards.

Deliverables

  • Branding

  • Posters

  • Wall Installation

  • Social Media

  • Merch

A Festival of Friendship

The origins of the National Tulip festival date back to the 1940’s when Canada sheltered the future queen of the Netherlands and her family for three years during WW2. In return the dutch gifted Canada 100,000 tulips and have sent over 10,000 bulbs every year since. To represent this relationship the tagline “A Festival of Friendship” was created for this campaign. The visual identity created features retro-inspired illustrations with textured finishes to drum up a sense of nostalgia and vintage charm while remaining upbeat. The bright colours chosen were inspired by the different colours tulips come in (pink, orange, red and purple). The bright hues are tempered by the use of navy and teal. Quirky illustrations, checkered elements and circle motifs help to solidify the visual narrative of the created aesthetic. 

Guiding the Way

Since the festival largely takes place outdoors, unique signage was created to help guide attendees from event to event. Quirky tulip shaped signs and signposts were created, alongside posters and standing banners. Keeping in mind the history of the festival, standing banners help share knowledge in a digestible and fun way. Printable such as an event booklet and a tulip guide help to inform attendees about the event and fun facts about tulips in general, such as what the different colours of tulip represent.

Merch is Always a Necessity 

What do you do when you have a collection of quirky illustrations? Why you make merch! Turning attendees into walking billboards, the created merch includes items for both youth and adults. Items such as lanyards, sweatshirts, tote bags, water bottles and yo-yo’s help attendees walk away with a moment from the festival while also providing further advertising for the event.