Oat Studio crafts fresh and cliche-free branding for major comedy festival

57 Festivals is a London-based company specialising in live comedy. Since 2005, it has delivered comedy shows and festivals to select cities across the UK.

Last year, the founders collaborated with Oat Studio – a London-based, multi-disciplinary studio founded in 2022 by husband-and-wife team Owen and Tori Phillips-Walmsley – to revamp the branding for a series of nationwide comedy festivals, starting with the Brighton Comedy Garden.

With a combined 40 years in the industry, Owen and Tori's experience spans from global and national brands like Nike, Converse, Apple, Lego, Everyman Cinemas, and Gail's Bakery to arts and cultural institutions such as Green Man Festival, Southbank Centre and Arts Council England. They aim to "bring big agency quality to smaller businesses and founders, giving them the best start possible and level the playing field".

The brief

57 Festivals tasked Oat Studio with refreshing the visual identity of their events, which features some of the biggest names in UK comedy, including Josh Widdicombe, Sara Pascoe, Fern Brady and Phil Wang, and to better reflect their vibrant and fun nature.

"They wanted a standout design that was fun and engaging without falling into comedy clichés or childishness," says Owen. "A key challenge was differentiating each festival location while maintaining a cohesive aesthetic. They also needed the design to be versatile enough for various applications, from posters to social media."

He adds that a specific challenge for working on events or festivals is that lineups can sometimes change at the last minute. "So we needed to have many illustrated elements and mini-illustrations, so designs could be updated easily if needed."

Finding an illustrator

The design process started with in-depth discussions with the client to establish a new direction centred on a heavily illustrated poster border design. The research involved finding an illustrator who could create the right feeling for the festivals. This led them to illustrator Rick Berkelmans, known as Hedof.

"We'd long admired Hedof's work and felt this project was the perfect opportunity to collaborate," says Tori. "Rick proved to be an absolute pleasure to work with, consistently delivering exceptional work that often exceeded our expectations. His professionalism and enthusiasm were evident from the start.

"Hedof's style was ideal because it balances imaginative, striking illustrations with thoughtful compositions," she adds. "His work has a surreal, fantastical nature aligned perfectly with the festivals' atmosphere. His illustrations are both visually appealing and adaptable for various applications, which was crucial for this project."

Illustration brief

Owen says Rick's brief was clear: "Create illustrations that were 'twisted, colourful, full of fantastical, freaky exotic plants, flowers, and foliage, with surreal characters.'

"We also asked him to capture the garden theme with festival vibes, incorporating elements like comedy, laughter, bars, drinks, beers, flags, circus tents, cocktails, and street food. And the illustrations need to balance absurdity and fantasy with a touch of darkness. We aimed to avoid anything too childlike or pagan/folky, favouring the absurd and fantastical over the twee."

He responded with enthusiasm. "Rick Berkelmans is such an enthusiast and perfectionist that he kept sending us revised versions of the designs," recalls Owen, "even though our team and the client were really happy with his initial designs and everything had been signed off. His work totally blew us away, providing the right mix of fun and creativity without veering into childish territory."

The results are a delightful mix of the fantastical and whimsical, carefully crafted to capture the festival's essence. They include elements like dancing legs, spilling drinks, friendly ghosts, and oversized plants hiding various creatures. These surreal touches create a sense of discovery and perfectly represent the Comedy Garden Festival's spirit.

"We hadn't previously seen any comedy festivals using this type of illustration style or type of poster layout," says Tori. "The closest reference we found was music festivals, which helps set the design and branding of the 57 Festivals events apart from anything in the same category."

To ensure they were flexible enough for various applications, they asked Hedof to complete all individual illustrations that composed the main borders of the lineup poster, even those that were partially hidden. This allowed Oat Studio to repurpose these elements for different outputs, such as social media posts.

"From our experience working with illustrators, we know this detail is really helpful for briefing these types of projects," she adds. "Although we typically don't mandate pixel or vector formats, Hedof's use of vector art simplified the creative process, resizing and recolouring new compositions for various applications."

Logo and typography

Once the illustrations were approved, Oat Studio extended this style across all festival materials, including social media assets, T-shirts and signage. These designs were organised around a curvy, characterful logotype with chunky letterforms that filled the top space of the posters, ensuring the event name stood out.

"We also introduced a bold and playful secondary typeface," says Owen, "with the descenders on the y's and g's designed to look like big smiles, adding a playful touch throughout the brand identity. We wanted the typography to complement and enhance Hedof's playful illustrations while ensuring the festival names remained prominent."

The curvy logotype with chunky letterforms echoes the organic nature of the illustrations, while the secondary typeface, with its smile-like descenders, reinforces the comedic nature of the festivals. As Owen puts it: "Our typography choices reflect the fun, dynamic nature of the festivals while maintaining a professional edge.

"The combination of the bold logotype and playful secondary typeface creates a balance between whimsical and contemporary, in the same way that the festivals balance showcasing both established and emerging talent."

Colour palette

One significant challenge was differentiating the Brighton Comedy Garden from the other four events in the series while maintaining a cohesive overall aesthetic. Oat Studio addressed this by developing five complementary colour palettes tailored to a specific festival location. "The vibrant colour palette we developed is impactful yet warm, striking a balance between standout aesthetics and approachability," says Tori.

Oat Studio developed a limited palette of strong, bright colours, including a warm yellow and playful candy pink, and then adapted it for each location. Brighton has a blue base to reflect its seaside setting, Greenwich a green base inspired by the Maritime Museum gardens, Bristol pink, Cambridge red, and St Albans yellow. This approach gives each festival a distinct look while maintaining overall brand cohesion.

"The vibrant colour palette reflects the festivals' energy and playfulness while avoiding feeling too childish," says Tori. "By limiting the palette to carefully chosen colours, we created a striking, memorable look that distinguishes the Comedy Garden Festivals from other events. The warm, inviting tones also reflect the welcoming atmosphere of the festivals."

Toolkit and templates

To share the branding across different touchpoints, Oat Studio utilised a toolkit of additional illustration elements from Hedof, including abstract shapes, patterns, and individual characters, to create adaptable borders and backgrounds for any size or format.

"For social media, we designed customisable templates that allowed easy swapping of act names and portraits, ensuring varied compositions for different shows," explains Owen. "Select elements were adapted for merchandise, giving visitors a tangible piece of the festival's identity. For printed menus and large-scale on-site signage, we focused on simple layouts that highlighted the illustrated graphics."

The result is a unique and exciting brand for Brighton Comedy Garden that beautifully captures the essence of the event. The vibrant illustrations and playful typography convey a sense of fun and creativity, inviting attendees to a festival filled with good times.

The new branding not only grabs attention but also enhances the festival's personality, setting the stage for memorable comedy experiences. The distinctive branding has helped the festivals stand out in a crowded events market, attracting both comedy enthusiasts and those drawn in by the eye-catching design. No wonder, then, that the year's festival tickets sold out in record time, and there has been a significant increase in public interest and engagement.