Edinburgh Film Festival dials 999 for help with communications work

This week, 999 Design will begin the design of all communications material for the 2002 Edinburgh International Film Festival.

The work, which includes the festival programme, preview, posters, banners, tickets, VIP passes and website design, will launch by the end of June.

‘[The Festival] felt that what it had [in terms of design] was beginning to look a bit tired. It wanted something emotive and out of that came an abstract approach. People can interpret it in their own way, the same as people interpret a film in their own way,’ says 999 design director Jim Ramsay.

The consultancy has an arrangement with the festival, described by festival marketing manager Richard Baker as a ‘business partnership’, whereby 999 is paid a cash sum and offered branding and client liaison opportunities.

The consultancy presented three design concepts as part of an unpaid creative pitch, beating Atom and Tic Toc to the job after an initial nine-way pitch. Incumbent consultancy Navy Blue, which has designed communications material for the festival for the past seven years did not pitch.

Festival organisers decided on the preferred concept on Monday.