Project Profile: Edmonton Folk Festival Poster Design 2025
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Edmonton Folk Music Festival Poster 2025
Where the Wild Things Dance: the poster that set the branding for the festival's 46th year.
- Project Owner
- Edmonton Folk Festival
- Prime Consultant
- Vision Creative
- Date
- 2024 to 2025
- Artist
- Nick Ross (reVerb)
The festival reveals its new poster about a month before the artist line-up, and that one image sets the branding for everything that follows.
Marketing and social media materials, print products and merchandise all take their cue from it. The work behind it starts almost six months earlier.
A Three-Way Collaboration
The poster design process runs between the artist, the agency (Vision Creative) and the Board and staff of the Edmonton Folk Music Society.
Having designed the 2024 poster, much of this was familiar the second time around. It starts with meetings between the three parties to agree on simple structural guidelines for the first brainstorm. Notes such as no animals, which had been overdone in past years, or a run at a retro 1970s colour palette, are all considered. The rest is creative freedom.
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Go Wide
Generate a wide range of concepts instead of working up individual ideas in detail.
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Narrow Down
Cut the range to a handful of concepts worth developing further.
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Refine Three
Refine three distinct directions for final review, each one specific to this festival.
Where the Wild Things Dance
Themes draw on classic and contemporary influences. The 2024 poster leaned on the imagination of Jules Verne, with fanciful flying machines creating a Festival in the Sky.
For 2025 the design shifted to a contemporary pop-culture lens, inspired by the playful monsters concept popularized by Lady Gaga's fandom. The final artwork drew loosely from Maurice Sendak's children's book and reimagined it in the Edmonton River Valley.
Three large monsters dance and play music against the downtown skyline, with details like the Muttart Conservatory pyramids flipped upside down into a drum. Smaller companion monsters appeared in marketing pieces, including one for the festival's volunteers.
One Poster, a Season of Branding
Once the poster and core illustrations are finalized, the designs extend across merchandise and festival branding.
The title lockup, colour palette and individual character illustrations are built to be pulled apart and used on their own across the festival's channels and print pieces.
- Monsters on Instagram and Spotify playlists
- Event signage on site
- Shirts in several variations, including volunteer group colours
- Posters hung around the city
The pieces that carried the 2025 festival brand
Artwork People Wear
Shirts were produced in several variations, including colours for volunteer groups.
The poster was hung around the city and worn by festival-goers, becoming both artwork and shared identity for the community.
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