Authenticating typography in cultural festival brand marks

Typography is a dominant feature which performs a central role in the branding and advertising of cultural festivals. This paper discusses how typography can be used to achieve authenticity in cultural festival brand marks culminating in strong, durable branding. With few controlled studies examining this nuanced area there is a scarcity of research addressing the role of typography within this phenomenon. The aim is to evaluate the way these properties contribute to either effective or ineffectual brand communication for a cultural festival. Regarded as destination attractions, cultural festivals commit significant capital to branding events in an effort to capture the tourist dollar. What follows draws on a 4-year study of cultural festival brand marks a decade and a half into the 21st century. Occurring between 2016 and 2018, 260 festival brandmarks were surveyed from a pool of 5408 from 18 English speaking countries. The methodological approach involves data collected in a case study method with a content analysis. We consider the significance of typography as it is positioned within communication design research reflecting on the current milieu of the discipline. The findings demonstrate that particular typefaces aimed to attract audiences and were seen as both unique in their application but also universally appealing; that Sans Serif trumps Serif typefaces and that typefaces signified differential conditioning underpinned by trade convergence. Finally, we offer a discussion of these findings to qualify the potential pathway to either effective or ineffectual brand communication capitalizing on the persuasive arrangement of typeface elements to attract audiences.