Gurtenfestival Visual Identity – As part of my vocational training, I developed a fictional visual identity for the festival, built around the theme «Unforgettable Moments in Nature». The identity had to work across several formats, including a poster, a website and merchandise. Developed in Blender, Photoshop, InDesign and Figma.
Concept
I started by studying Gurtenfestival posters from previous years and collecting references of nature, light and architecture. The goal was a visual world that feels immersive, as if you were standing in the middle of a summer meadow.
First Iterations
I built a meadow scene in Blender and chose a worm's-eye view: looking up from inside the grass towards the sky, where the festival title appears. The feedback was clear: the approach was too close to the previous year's campaign. I also found the image too busy to carry all the information a poster needs.
Second Iterations
To calm the composition, I switched to a top-down view of the meadow. The nature context stays visible, while the line-up gets a clear place in the center. The concept worked, but the feedback pointed out a missing key element that could carry the identity across all formats.
Third Iterations
I experimented with different insects and simple shapes, from dragonflies and beetles to a moon. The butterfly had been part of the scene from the very beginning, and when I placed it on the meadow in Photoshop and masked it with the title, it clicked. It became the central motif, simple enough to work on the poster, the website and merchandise.
Final
For the final version, I chose a bold yellow. The initial red was barely readable against the meadow, so I needed a color with stronger contrast. Yellow also matches the festival logo and evokes sun, sunflowers and summer, while blue serves as a subtle secondary color for details like the dots separating the acts. Together with the butterfly, this palette creates a consistent identity that carries from the poster to the website. Feel free to explore the interactive prototype.
