How one brand is disrupting music festivals by helping fans go green

Everyday, our designers bring to life the brands (and dreams) of founders from all over the world. Anyone who’s started a business knows the rush of seeing their logo and branding—something that once was just an idea—in real life for the very first time. It’s a really special moment that we’re lucky enough to see on a daily basis.

Welcome to #99designed, where we’re sharing some of these amazing stories on our blog and Instagram. 

Design that makes a difference
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At 99designs, we know design has the power to transform businesses, and we believe that power should be accessible to everyone. Through our nonprofit program, 99nonprofits, we award five US$500 grants every month to nonprofit organizations so they can get design work—from logos to brochures to social media images—that help move their work forward.

Green Music Australia recently participated in the 99nonprofits program to create a new logo design for their Party With The Planet campaign, an initiative that encourages festivals, artists and fans to join forces and reduce the environmental impact of summer concerts and events. 

Musician Jack Johnson bringing his own water bottle as part of Green Music Australia’s BYOB campaign. Image courtesy of Party With The Planet

Party With The Planet is one of Green Music Australia’s most public-facing campaigns, and as such, it’s also one of the first campaigns that the organization has had professionally branded. Read on to discover how they’re crafting a brand identity that conveys their nonprofit’s mission to the world.  

Striking a sustainable chord
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The Party With The Planet campaign has partnered with several of Australia’s popular summer camping festivals—like Splendour In The Grass, Strawberry Fields and Party In The Paddock—to encourage festival attendees to party sustainably and reduce the amount of waste they leave behind. Their goal is to encourage festival-goers to make environmentally-conscious decisions like bringing their own reusable water bottles, renting or buying long-lasting tents instead of throwaways, and no longer using single-use plastic items like water bottles, straws and cutlery. 

Musicians Rising at the Stop Adani camp. Image courtesy of Party With The Planet

Behind the scenes, Party With The Planet also works with festivals to evaluate how to get artists to venues; how to offset their carbon emissions from transporting equipment, people, food and drinks; where to buy their power; how to invest in renewable energy and land rehabilitation in the area; and how to better respect the land that the festival takes place on. 

“Recycling is beneficial, but the first part of ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ is that you want to reduce what you’re doing and reuse—way before you even think of recycling.” – Tenaya King, Party With The Planet

When it comes to reducing carbon emissions from people flying to and from festivals, Tenaya King, administrative assistant for Green Music Australia, points out, “It’s definitely really hard and we can’t all sail across the Atlantic like Greta Thunberg is doing!” However, Party With The Planet has devised ways for festivals to do their part, including encouraging festivals to plant trees as well as partner with carbon offset organizations. 

Party With The Planet is in good company with other international artists and organizations who are leading the way to raise awareness around music industry sustainability. For example, Glastonbury festival in the UK committed to running a plastic-free festival earlier this year, and rising star Billie Eilish announced she would make her tour “as green as possible.”

Party With The Planet at Bluesfest 2018. Image courtesy of Party With The Planet

Of course, global concerns around sustainability go beyond just the music industry. We’ve seen celebrities like Jane Fonda stepping up to participate in marches and protests in Washington every week, campaigning for the climate emergency. In September 2019, thousands of businesses (including 99designs) joined school students for This Is Not Business As Usual, a pledge to support worker participation in the climate strike.

Party With The Planet’s ultimate goal is to create a movement that brings the environment into focus across all kinds of live music in Australia. With a goal this lofty, they needed a distinctive and powerful logo design that would help them spread awareness globally.

Creating a distinctive brand
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As a recipient of a 99nonprofits grant, Party With The Planet decided to launch a logo design contest on 99designs in order to review a variety of concepts from different designers and find the right one. 

Because their organization had several stakeholders involved in the logo design process, the poll tool came in handy for Tenaya so she share designs from the contest with her remote team and receive feedback. The team had a unanimous favorite: the work of designer Amanda Chong, who wound up getting it right with her first concept.

Party With The Planet logo design by Amanda Chong

Amanda, who is a Malaysia-based designer, creatively utilized color psychology as well as iconography to relay Party With The Planet’s message in a minimal yet eye-catching logo design. Blue and green, colors that are typically associated with the environment, are featured in brilliant neon hues in a nod to the fun and vibey culture of music festivals. The linework illustration of a planet orbiting two mountains amidst techno-inspired stars evokes both music and nature in a rhythmic balance, exemplifying Party With The Planet’s mission and values.

Putting their best face forward
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Green Music Australia hasn’t done major branding for previous campaigns because most of these campaigns took place behind the scenes. With the limited funding of a nonprofit, they couldn’t justify the expense. However, Party With The Planet is one of Green Music Australia’s most public-facing campaigns, which is why nailing a strong logo design was really important to their organization.

“Branding is really valuable for the Party With The Planet campaign, and we want to use the design as a very visible thing.”

The new logo will appear in a video of Australian musicians who are supporting the campaign, and it will be used on social media to encourage people to pledge their support to party with the planet this summer, not against it. Because printing t-shirts isn’t always the most sustainable process, the Party With The Planet team is devising ways to spread brand awareness more consciously, like spraying their logo onto people’s tents at festivals.

Having a powerful logo design has set Party With The Planet up for long-term success with a face, a talking point and an invaluable marketing asset. We predict it won’t be too long before this logo is seen at festivals all over the world.

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