BFI

BFI London Film Festival

A bold visual identity for one of the world’s most iconic film festivals.

The BFI‘s London Film Festival is a refreshingly different kind of festival. It’s far-reaching, diverse and reflects London’s own belief that everyone is welcome. This spirit led us to a new strategy and a new creative idea – Modern Heritage.

Our visual identity was inspired by a forgotten asset – the original Norman Engleback logo sitting on the BFI’s listed building since 1954. It was time to bring it back.





What we did:



CLIENT BFI

CONCEPT, DESIGN, ART DIRECTION, ANIMATION, PRODUCTION DBLG

AUDIO Mutant Jukebox

AUDIO 2021 -2022 Ideosound

Process

By modernizing this iconic marque, it’s not only a nod to established festival-goers, but becomes relevant for new audiences. This multi-disciplinary project also led to a typographic review of the brand. The LFF logo ensures ‘Film’ has more gravitas without resorting to cliché. This year our tribute took the form as a mesmerising stainless steel kinetic sculpture, mirroring the 11-piece triangular cascade. Filmed using specialised incamera techniques, we captured its physical elegance and light refraction, celebrating the seamless fusion of film, storytelling and cinematic creativity.

LFF 2022

We deconstructed the famous BFI cascade to create waves of colour and movement, representing the huge variety of content available at the festival.

LFF 2021

The Festival was back so we turned the lights back on, this time by illuminating the triangles from within creating a vibrant and and enriching identity.

LFF 2020

Due to the pandemic the festival was mostly taken online and had a much higher digital presence . The neon visual narrative reflected the energy and vibrancy of the event.  

LFF 2019

For this alliteration our identity was designed to create maximum impact and to break the obvious Film festival clichés.

Festival Opener

Designed to work effectively in a darker environment, the animated opener captures the unique energy of London as well as the diversity of the films on offer at the festival.

“It was a pleasure working with DBLG on the creative for the 61st, 62nd and 63rd BFI London Film Festival. From the offset they completely understood what we were trying to achieve and I was delighted by their creativity and innovation.”

Darren Wood
Senior Marketing Manager BFI