Designing a visual identity for HebCelt 2025
+ Illustration + Visual Identity + Print Design
Client: HebCelt Festival | Project delivered → June 2025
The HebCelt Festival site in the evening light in Stornoway. Photo ©HebCelt Festival
HebCelt is an annual Celtic music festival, hosting many acts from around the world in the stunning setting of Lews Castle Grounds overlooking Stornoway Harbour. It is a massive highlight in the Island calendar, and, fast approaching its 30th year, it has become an institution that is now the third-largest music festival in Scotland.
The O’Halloran family enjoying HebCelt 2024
I was therefore delighted to be selected following a tendering process to design the visual identity for the 2025 event. ☺
The Brief
The first stage involved a discovery call with the team to draw out a full brief. We went over the festival's history, including previous visual identities, current position and the themes to explore for the year ahead.
My main takeaway from these sessions was to explore ways to celebrate the festival's unique setting. Previous editions explored more abstract notions of the festival feeling. Although visually strong, the concept was generic and could be applied to many festivals, not just this one.
The previous visual identities we reviewed.
The Visions
Alternative version of the HebCelt logo
Vision A
I had developed a distinct visual style while running the design studio, LOOM Graphics, in Stornoway for several years. I applied the flat vector system to a poster graphic, crafting scenes from the castle and the harbour around the lineup text.
The team was set on using the same logo for the 'HebCelt' title (it's a belter, so I was down), but were open to ideas, so I styled a new interpretation that sat with the graphic style of this concept.
Vision B
Linocut Swallows by Alice MacMillan
Looking back on the posters, I really liked the very first edition. It was clean and let a painting that reflected the festival's mood do the work.
This gave me an idea to reach out to local linocut Artist Alice Macmillan to see if I could use some of her artwork for the proposal. I really love her work and thought it would work perfectly as a graphic. My idea was to potentially commission her to make an artwork specifically for the festival. I could then use this artwork as the basis for the graphic elements across the various touchpoints.
For this concept, I used a previous 'Swallow' artwork of hers to symbolise the festival's uplifting, free spirit. A placeholder for a potentially more bespoke piece if the HebCelt team, ahem, flew with this one.
Vision C
In response to the first two routes, I decided to return to basics and more literally represent the festival site. I developed a retro-futurist drawing style through Ada Zielenska's course, which I used to create an illustration for the festival site. The view from the castle allowed you to see the main tents of the festival while also taking in the skyline of Stronoway, An Lanntair, the local arts centre, in the image too. They host a series of fringe events, effectively making all the festival's venues a single perspective.
The sky was enormous and expansive because the Hebridean sky is ENORMOUS AND EXPANSIVE. The colour scheme was picked from images of a summer evening on the island.
Custom illustrations made in Procreate
”The sky was enormous and expansive because the Hebridean sky is ENORMOUS AND EXPANSIVE!”
The Feedback
The team thoroughly enjoyed the high-quality options and showed enthusiasm for each vision. But Vision C was the clear winner. It was a home run with no notes on the style elements. WIN!
TheRollout
SOCIAL MEDIA
The first practical task was to update the social media graphics, introducing the new 2025 brand and raising expectations. ↓
Then, in late October, the first wave of act announcements arrived, and the brand's first glimpse appeared.
It was largely quiet until the new year, when preparations began in earnest as the July dates drew near rapidly.
The full main poster was drafted and approved. I also drafted posters for fringe events in Breasclete, Harris and An Lanntair. Using the festival site graphic for these posters would have been misleading, so I created original illustrations for each poster to reflect the venue. I changed the colour scheme too, so it felt like its own event, while staying under the same branding umbrella as the main festival.
Poster for fringe even in Northon, Isle of Harris
Original illustration for Northon event
Poster for Breascelete Event
Original Poster art for Breasclete
Full final poster artwork
Original Poster background art
WRISTBANDS & DRINK CUPS
With suppliers needing a couple of months' lead time, we went on to the drink cup, wristband and merchandise artwork soon after. ↓
FESTIVAL GUIDE
Once the text for the Festival Guide arrived, we were on the home stretch, and the event was taking shape. The editorial design of the Festival Guide really allowed us to showcase the whole brand, with its various illustrations helping codify the sections and day breakdowns. ↓
MERCHANDISE
An important part of the festival set up is the popular festival Merchandise. I supplied one colour graphics for screenprint that could be applied across a variety of merchandise.
The Event
The view from ‘Middle-aged Mound’
The O’Hallorans going full HebCelt 2025 - I won’t explain the Pikachu hat
I wish I had the power to, but I can't design the weather for the weekend; that was in the lap of the gods. Fortunately, they smiled kindly for the 3 days of July, and the town came alive to the carnival atmosphere of the festival.
It was a real treat to see the brand come together, from the large posters in town to the wristbands in the arena and the multitude of kids running riot in their 2025 hoodies.
On the music front, LUSA on the Lewis Wind Power stage was my particular highlight. They really had the tent rocking on Friday evening.
The impact
The Most Successful event in the festival's history, with over 18,500 attendees.
©HebCelt Festival
©HebCelt Festival
£4.4 Million generated for the local Island Economy
©HebCelt Festival
The Feedback.
“It’s a testament to all who have worked, volunteered, and supported us in building what is essentially a pop-up village to deliver a best-in-class, internationally renowned event.”
– Iain Macphail , Chair of the HebCelt Board
©HebCelt Festival
”A huge thank you to our incredible Graphic Designer, Pearse O'Halloran for the stunning artwork and branding for this year’s HebCelt Festival!
From the first concept to the final touches, Pearse brought creativity, passion, and a deep understanding of the HebCelt spirit to every element of the design.
The 2025 festival visuals capture the essence of our island, our music, and our people – and we have already had such a brilliant response from our audience.
Your talent has helped shape the identity of this year’s festival, and we’re so proud to have your work front and centre as we celebrate another unforgettable HebCelt.
Thank you for being such an important part of the team 💚”
- Post on the HebCelt Festival Linkedin page
©HebCelt Festival
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