Developed by the Centre for Social Impact (CSI), the Social Impact Festival is a celebration of social good initiatives and the limitless possibilities they represent in Australia. Bringing together more than 200 cutting-edge international and local speakers, community leaders, artists, and organisations, this multi-faceted festival goes far beyond talking about the issues confronting our society and provided the conditions for citizens to co-create the future they wish to see.
Issues in focus
Community Development, Human Rights, Storytelling, Reshaping Perceptions
Their challenge
CSI asked DrawHistory to help give the festival its voice, rethink their audience messaging and bring their vision for the community alive. While CSI is an academic centre, the team knew that the festival needed to reach the community at large rather than limiting access to researchers in the social impact space. We were tasked to ultimately create an inclusive brand that would unify the festival’s attendees across community, corporate, government, academia and youth and streamline their registrations and bookings online.
Our strategy
DrawHistory created a brand identity that was immediately accessible to more than just those ‘in the know’, but more widely stakeholders around Australia. The new Social Impact Festival brand invites each group to share and connect about the critical issues and important ideas impacting their lives and those around them. We worked with the CSI team and volunteers for two consecutive years to not only configure their communications but build their capacity to spread the word throughout the event.
Insights from stakeholders
By sharing observations from previous attendees, partners and volunteers, we helped CSI gain insight and understanding of people’s experiences. This knowledge, paired with brand workshops, helped crystallise their belief that the festival should be as inclusive as possible.
The attribute we put forward, unifying, received unanimously positive feedback. Participants repeatedly considered this attribute as the heart of the Social Impact Festival, evoking the tri-sector collaboration that the event seeks to facilitate.
Scaffolding an identity
Centred around the core attributes of unifying, purpose-driven and catalytic, the patterns, icons and colours all mix to communicate what the festival is about – a community of big possibilities. In both the 2017 and 2018 iterations of the brand, we made sure that the festival team was able to take ownership of their brand elements and create something uniquely different each time, whether for social content or event collateral.
We also implemented a rule to guide the team in combining our brush strokes, representing action, organic shapes, representing community, and handpainted textures, representing a joint effort, to communicate this brand.
The outcome
In 2017, our rebrand and consequent roll-out helped double the festival’s attendees from 2,000 to over 4,400 in a single year, with over 94% of them responding positively in surveys.
The following year, attendance and web engagement again increased to over 6,500 people, making it one of the largest social impact-based festivals in the Asia-Pacific.
The versatile new brand, led by the striking conversation-focused logomark, will continue to radiate with the collaborative philosophy CSI hopes to nurture for change-makers joining their community long into the future.
* Photography and videography in this case study were produced by the Centre for Social Impact
