Festivals and events are more than dates in the calendar – they’re moments of connection, celebration, and creativity. And in a crowded cultural landscape, branding is the difference between a fleeting event and a lasting memory.
At Arch Creative, we’ve worked with global names like MTV as well as homegrown projects like Brew Beat and Punk: Rage & Revolution. Through bold design, immersive storytelling and strategic identity work, we’ve helped festivals and events become experiences, not just occasions. In this post, we explore how branding transforms cultural events and how thoughtful design helps audiences not just attend, but engage.
Our creative collaboration with MTV: Festivals & Events has included some of their biggest UK campaigns – from MTV Music Week and MTV Crashes Plymouth to high-profile events like the EMAs.
Designing for MTV means walking a fine line between global brand consistency and local cultural relevance. Our work included everything from branding, digital assets and stage graphics to wayfinding and print, helping bring their high-energy events to life across multiple platforms and touchpoints.
This taught us a valuable truth about event branding: every detail counts, from how a guest finds their way through a city to the visual energy they feel from a poster, screen or sticker.
Arch approached BID Leicester with an idea of creating a new city-centre festival. The craft beer and music festival developed as a creative partnership between us, BID Leicester, HQ Recording, FunkNation and more recently The Real Ale Classroom. We didn’t just design it – we named it.
Brew Beat became an instant hit, bringing together live performances, street art and independent brewing under one bold, memorable identity. The name was playful and punchy, while the branding used geometric typography and layered textures to reflect the vibrancy of the city. For us, Brew Beat exemplifies how naming and design can give shape to a cultural vision, helping a festival find its tone, audience and future.
Two of our most celebrated cultural projects show how design can breathe new life into subcultures with historic impact. With Mods: Shaping a Generation, we developed a distinctive brand identity and full exhibition design to celebrate 1960s Mod culture in Leicester. The project combined heritage with modern appeal, connecting new audiences to a key moment in youth and style history.
More recently, Punk: Rage & Revolution brought the rebellious spirit of 1970s punk to a new generation, winning a National Lottery Heritage Award in the process. Our design approach was raw, typographic and urgent, echoing the DIY ethos of punk itself. These projects show how authenticity in design can elevate cultural exhibitions into movements, capturing both the aesthetics and the energy of the stories being told.
It’s not just music and subcultures where branding matters. Public festivals and seasonal events are powerful tools for local engagement and tourism, but they still need a clear, compelling identity. Our Christmas in Leicester campaigns brought festive cheer to the city centre through magical, character-led visuals, animated assets, and environmental graphics. These campaigns turned everyday spaces into winter wonderlands and helped drive footfall, visibility, and community spirit at a crucial time of year.
From the evolving identities of Glastonbury to the design excellence seen at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, there’s always something to learn from how branding evolves with audience expectations.
The most successful cultural brands share a few key traits:
These are the same values we bring to every event and cultural campaign we work on, whether it’s a city festival or a global music show.
At their best, festivals and cultural events don’t just entertain, they bring people together. And when the design matches the energy and purpose of the event, it becomes part of the story itself. At Arch, we believe that creativity has the power to turn temporary moments into unforgettable experiences. Whether you’re building a new cultural festival, curating an exhibition, or launching a major public event, we’re here to help bring it to life, with branding that inspires, unites, and endures. Let’s collaborate.