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Festspillene i Nord Norge

Visual identity for North Norways largest art, culture and performance festival

Fig.02. — Everyday Holy

i. Project Background
The Arctic Arts Festival is Northern Norway’s largest cultural event, held annually in Harstad. With over 200 events across music, performance, film, and visual arts, it brings together more than 31,000 attendees each June.

For 2025, the theme “Common things made holy” explores how art transforms the everyday into something emotionally and spiritually resonant. The design brief called for a bold, human-centered identity—breaking from traditional Arctic imagery—and for a digital-first approach using animation. The identity would be applied across all touchpoints: print, digital, merchandise, and spatial media.

Fig.02. — Hypnotic loop
Fig.03. — Festival teaser

Client:
Festspillene I Nord-Norge

Product:
Visual Identity, Branding

Year:
2025

Design, direction, animation, illustration:
Joseph Hodgson

Music & Sound Design:
Joseph Hodgson

Designed at:
Racecar

ii. Process
I began by exploring the meaning of “holy” across religious, cultural, and philosophical traditions—from the sacred to the divine. While its interpretation is personal and subjective, recurring visual motifs emerge across cultures: circular forms, spiral patterns, symmetry, and central points of focus—found in everything from stained glass to sacred geometry, religious symbols to iconography. This visual language became the foundation for the project.

Incorporating everyday objects creates a stark contrast to the profoundness often associated with the holy. The mundane, typically devoid of spiritual significance, can still be seen as part of a recurring, cyclical pattern. This parallel reflects the very essence of the festival—where art, design, and culture elevate the ordinary. Can the everyday be sacred? Can anything be considered art?

iii. Result
The outcome felt like a natural conclusion—a literal response to the brief. I created a series of animated compositions built from everyday objects, repeated in spiral arrangements and set in bold, repeating color palettes to reflect the diversity of the festival program: The everyday made holy. Eight designs—one for each day of the festival—each with its own color theme. These core visuals were applied across everything from posters (general and event-specific), stickers, apparel, tote bags, billboards, digital content, social media, name badges, festival passes, animated programs, physical installations, and vehicle wraps. I also composed the music for all animated elements to reflect the central themes of the visual identity. A juxtaposition of sounds from everyday life paired with simple musical themes to add a warm, organic tone.

To ensure continuity after project delivery, I also produced a comprehensive design guide and toolkit and template system enabling the client to extend the system throughout the course of the festival.

Fig.04a. — Promo Day #1

Fig.04b. — Promo Day #2

Fig.04c. — Promo Day #3

Fig.04d. — Promo Day #5

Fig.04e. — Promo Day #6

Fig.05. — 8 days of festival = 8 posters

Fig.06. — Poster: Day #1

Fig.07. — Poster series

Fig.08a. — Holy Camper

Fig.08b. — Holy Camper

Fig.08c. — Holy Camper

Fig.09a. — Event specific poster

Fig.09b. — Event sperific poster

Fig.10. — Wide billboard festival poster

Fig.11. — Holy Tee’s

Fig.12. — Instagram post examples

Fig.13. — Another tote

Fig.14. — Visual echo

Fig.15a. — Program poster #1

Fig.15b. — Program poster #2

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Festspillene i Nord Norge

Fig.02. — Hypnotic loopFig.03. — Festival teaser

Fig.02. — Hypnotic loop
Fig.03. — Festival teaser