The City of Melbourne hosts a festival celebrating all generations of First Nations artists and performers each year in the fall, called Yirramboi, meaning ‘tomorrow’ in the shared local languages of the Boonwurrung and Woiwurrung peoples. Clear, alongside Yirramboi’s Creative Director and Boonwurrung and Wemba Wemba Woman, Caroline Martin, and the City of Melbourne, worked to craft a brand and campaign for the 2021 festival amid 2020’s second lockdown. During multiple brand workshops and passionate conversations in virtual rooms, the team aimed to deliver an influential, courageous festival with branding to echo the teams’ ambition and optimism to celebrate the promise of tomorrow. The brand is crafted on atmospheric photography, capturing the drama in nature.

The seductive, warm colour palette was derived from a series of sunsets over Melbourne during the long Covid lockdown. The ‘chevron’ or ‘arrow’ graphic informed by First Peoples pattern making found in Victoria symbolising consideration of First Nations artists' past, present, and emerging. The wordmark Yirramboi uses a reflected ‘Tomorrow’ to form the block lockup. Together these elements create an evocative campaign and are designed to deliver a long-term design narrative for the festival and the future of First Nations performance art.

Clear has designed a brand and campaign that sparks hope after a year of hardship for many, and generations of trials for many more. The festival gives a loud voice to those previously silenced, shines a bright light where there has historically been much darkness, and creates a safe space to exercise creative muscles bursting with passion.