O Street brings digital dynamism to EIFF identity

This year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival is set to open next month, with an identity and brand language created by O Street.

It is the first time the branding has been refreshed in four years, and festival head of marketing Kate Park explains that the aim was to take the identity ‘into the digital age’.

‘It needed to be made more current, especially since most identities in film are viewed digitally or on-screen. Certainly for cinema, the days of printed matter are gone. If you look at a lot of the 1990s logos, they look static. The new identity looks especially great when animated,’ says Park.

O Street was selected from a three-way creative pitch in January, ahead of Glasgow group GRP and Edinburgh consultancy Various, because of its ‘strong understanding of digital marketing and applications’, according to Park. The selection process began when EIFF held an open tender last October, to which 25 consultancies applied.

O Street’s brief was to refresh the logo, positioning, values and visual language, and to overhaul the brand guidelines.

Creative director of O Street Neil Wallace says that the ‘cinema light’ concept that informed the branding process was inherent in the brand.

‘The brand already had a strong cinematic quality, hence the project was all shot on camera,’ he says.

About 15 000 people are expected to attend this year’s festival, which runs from 15 until 26 August.