Marque Creative in Glasgow art festival work

Marque Creative is designing a website, wayfinding and print materials for the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, following the launch of its new identity for the event.

The festival appointed Marque late last winter, following a pitch against four other Glasgow-based groups, according to the festival producer Jean Cameron.

‘Glasgow has a bit of a swagger that it was important for the designers to get,’ Cameron says. Marque also has a New York office, ‘which appealed to us because we are an international festival’, she adds.

Due to replace the first-phase site before the end of January, the full website will feature social networking capabilitiesand be ‘a little more exploratory and ambitious than some festival websites, and very content-heavy’, according to festival marketing manager Tracey Kelly.

However, a tight budget is providing a ‘challenge’ to Marque in the creation of signage and way finding for the festival, which will take place across more than 20 venues, says Kelly.

‘There are a few big municipal venues in the city that will require large-scale signage solutions, probably in very bright colours, but then there are also] small venues tucked away, and it will be hard to identify a small venue 200m away on a tight budget. Marque has its work cut out,’ says Kelly.

The festival’s commitment to create cross-market appeal and attract both art enthusiasts and local people is providing another challenge for Marque.

In an effort to solve this conundrum, it is producing photographic marketing materials that feature abstract bubbles against light backgrounds such as pictures, as well as images that include people interacting withartworks, according to Kelly.

Last May, Marque’s new identity for the festival replaced the GI logo that was produced by Stand. ‘GI doesn’t say much to the international audience, so we spelled it out and used different typefaces for the words to create an idea of the old and new coming together,’ says Marque designer Barry Smith.

Marque is also producing print ads and a festival guide, among other print materials. So far, the logo has appeared on the first-phase website and a teaser postcard sent out in the summer, reports Smith.

Between now and April, the ads, signage and festival guide will be produced.

Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art takes place from 16 April to 3 May.