Over the years, the Heartland Film Festival has branded itself through campaign themes, but has not officially had its own unique logo. For years now the Festival has borrowed from the overarching Heartland Truly Moving Pictures logo, using the Heartland Film Festival name against the familiar film strip that contains a heart-shaped sun floating above a field of grass.
“The Heartland Film Festival is organized by the Heartland Truly Moving Pictures organization,” explains Heartland’s Director of Marketing & Communications Greg Sorvig, “but when it comes to branding, the Festival needed something to set it apart. We surveyed Festival attendees and filmmakers and the consistent feedback we received was that Heartland should develop something special and more focused on the Festival experience.
“One of the 2012 filmmakers told me the first thing they see on the film festival submission site withoutabox.com is a thumbnail of a festival’s logo. If our logo wasn’t honestly conveying our mission and experience, then it was time to come up with something new. That first impression is vital.
“My initial vision was something that represents heartland in the geographic sense, but also reflects the Festival’s mission and wide demographic. We have moviegoers from age three to 93, so what I imagined was something that bridges that gap.
“I described the initial concept to our Marketing & Design Coordinator Derek Hulsey and he really picked up and ran with the idea. Derek is an amazing graphic designer with a special talent in typography. He drew variations of the new logo by hand, scanned in his sketches and created everything from scratch.”
“With this logo, we wanted to create something that would be hard to ignore. The result is a mark that is intricate and timeless, appealing to a wide age range, and expressive of the Heartland feeling,” says Hulsey.