California Film Institute unveils new logo for its popular, long-running Mill Valley Film Festival.
At a press conference at Dolby Labs, CFI Executive Director Mark Fishkin announced the new identity, designed by the San Francisco design firm MINE™. Fishkin also unveiled the official festival poster, advertising campaign and website, all of which center around the theme “Turning 30” — a tribute to the festival’s 30th year.
“Saying that we’re ‘turning 30’ is different than saying it’s our 30th anniversary,” explains Fishkin, “It means we’re not just looking back, we’re looking forward.”
As the Institute looked forward to the future of the Film Festival they realized it was the prefect opportunity to reconsider their aging identity. That’s when the organizers turned to MINE™.
“The existing identities for the Film Institute and the Festival were dated and definitely cliché,” says Christopher Simmons, principal and creative director of the San Francisco design studio, “We literally found more than 500 existing logos that used the same type of imagery (film reels and spockets) that they were using. It was generic, boring, and didn’t really communicate anything special about the festival. We wanted something more for them, something better, and so did they.”
Working with the festival’s ad agency, Scheyer/SF, MINE created a new family of logos for the Institute, its education program and the Mill Valley Film Festival, the latter of which is a stylized “MV.” A tiny heart rests in the valley of the V.
“The heart is really what its all about,” says Simmons, “The Festival is about the love of film, and we wanted to create a mark that reflected that.” Also important was establishing a sense of place. For that the designers took their cues from the landmark signage of the local Rafael Theatre (designed by Mark Fox) which is operated by CFI and plays home to the Mill Valley Film Festival. “Even though the festival attracts filmmakers and stars from more than 49 countries, at its heart it is a local experience,” Simmons explains, “By capturing some of the local typography and colors we’re reinforcing that sense of place that is central to the festival’s identity.”
