Mardi Gras gets brand makeover
new logo
Sydney’s annual gay and lesbian festival Mardi Gras has received a brand makeover.
Orchestrated by STW Group’s Moon Communications, the idea behind the brand rethink is to open up the festival beyond the gay and lesbian community and make it relevant to everybody as ‘a celebration of the power and the beauty of diversity’.
A new logo, viewable on the Mardi Gras Facebook page, has been introduced – two hearts pushed together in the shape of a butterfly, and the name of the event changed to Sydney Mardi Gras. However, the name of the organisation has been changed back from New Mardi Gras to Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.
The festival’s chair Pete Urmson said in a statement:
The Sydney Mardi Gras will always have its thumping gay heart that celebrates the city’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer communities, but Mardi Gras is now inviting those who share our positive message about the power and beauty of diversity to be part of our celebration.
We would love to see people who share our values, but who never thought they would be in the Parade to approach us and share their ideas. There will always be room for a great float which will both entertain and bring people together.
Our hope with this change is to turn Sydney Mardi Gras into an even bigger civic event – right up there with Rio and the world’s other great carnivals – to be enjoyed by everyone, but always remembered as being a gift to the city from its gay & lesbian community and a demonstration of our pride.
Greg Logan, Moon’s ECD, said: “The logo is a universal symbol that connects with everyone in a different way. It symbolises all types of genders coming together and does not discriminate. Its symmetry indicates equality and people coming together to celebrate love.”
The logo has been tattooed on the arm of the festival’s head of marketing and communications Damien Eames and used in brand activations on Sydney’s beaches.
I think I like it, I certainly like Greg’s description of it and what Mardi Gras stands for, will be interesting to see how it plays out
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The logo has been tattooed on the head of marketing lead? That’s dedication.
It’s a nice logo, though.
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Love is forever….. hearts… inifity…
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Nicely said Pete!!
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Nice to see the words “Gay & Lesbian” have been dropped from the logo 🙁 What’s the point of all this if it excludes the 2 words that mean the most to the purpose or reason for the organisations existence. If the organisation’s name has changed from New Mardi Gras back to the original Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, who from a branding perspective suggested it would be a good idea to drop “Gay & Lesbian” from the organisation’s logo? Also, a quick look at the redesigned website (homepage) has only one instance of the words “Gay & Lesbian” on it, and that’s in the site copyright notice. Can someone from Mardi Gras explain the rationale as to not using these words anymore?
Has gay become passé?
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Great logo but no queer cheer….sad 🙁
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Cleaver logo, says it all
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I’m seeing 2 heart shaped tablets. Weird.
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The logo is nice but not original, I used it in a piece back in July and I’m sure I’m not the only one – http://dribbble.com/shots/2118.....-Engraving
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agree – dropping the words gay and lesbianis a bad idea
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Nice.
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It reminds me of the Streets Icecream logo.
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I see heart shaped bow ties at this years mardi gras
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Nice stuff Moon. The whole thing has suffered an identity crisis in the last few years.
Best of luck with it for 2012.
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@ David. Is it not that the brand repositioning is seeking to promote inclusiveness into the event outside of the G&L community?
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The whole brand/blandification is about 10 years behind what happened to the tone of the parade/organisation & nearly as tokenistic and tangential in speaking to queer identity as the marriage equality debate.
I guess real difference & corporate identities should be at odds; since this says about as little to & about anything I’d want to identify with as possible, it’s either brilliant branding or as exclusionary and dismissive as the cultural imperatives that bred the original Mardi Gras.
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the point I don’t get is why “Gay & Lesbian” needs to be removed from the festival branding in order to gain greater inclusivity. Other cultures don’t feel the need to strip away their identities in order to achieve this. I think the move is short-sighted and will reduce visibility, acceptance and tolerance. But on the flipside, it should make corporate sponsors happier and fill SGLMG coffers so that they can pander to a straighter audience. Never mind that the organisations general objective “is to raise the visibility of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex communities.” Taking the 2 most well known and visibly clear terms out of the month long festival branding seems to be at odds with this objective?
http://mardigras.org.au/about-us/index.cfm
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@David, you make a valid point.
I think Mardi Gras as the celebration of the “LGBTQI” community is at a junction of “acceptance”
To continue to highlight it as being “different” or position what it stands for as being “accepted and equal”, but nevertheless with a strong root in the “LGBTQI” cause?
It seems to be trying to do the latter, which I think is wise as it moves the perception of “LGBTQI” across the board from one of “difference looking for acceptance”, to one of “equality recognising acceptance.”
As for the logo, it may not be the most unique thing (and what is), but it is simple effective, memorable and encapsulates many aspects the idea being conveyed. The well-known rainbow device seems a little abstruse, but hey – it’ll be like the Nike logo – interpreted in many ways around a common theme. It’s a festival logo, FFS.
I’m sure Moon or Mardi Gras themselves may have a more detailed insight they wish to share.
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@AdGrunt – I actually love the logo and what it represents. I object to them removing the “Gay & Lesbian” term is all. It seems at odds with the organisation and what the thrust of the festival is – which is primarily a festival to celebrate the gay & lesbian community.
And I think that if we (GLBTi) folk actually had equality, then it would make more sense, however we don’t, and I fail to see how making us invisible will help end discrimination.
Aboriginal people don’t paint themselves white to try and become inclusive, instead their Indigenous culture is celebrated for what it is – Indigenous culture.
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The removal of the phrase ‘gay and lesbian’ from branding is quite understandable.
Gay and Lesbian organisations are increasing asked by community members to be more representative of all apects of diversity in sexuality and gender, but gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans*, inter-sex, queer, questioning, pansexual, ominsexual is quite an alphabet soup GLBTIQQOP. It doesn’t roll off the tounge and certainly doesn’t fit on a logo.
There is also a distinct chage in how younger GLBTetc people identify themselves – iconography of rainbows and pink triangles are fading in popularity, especially with younger people. At OUTinPerth we’re finding when we speak to younger people there is a distinct opinion that the gay and lesbian community should be presented as something that is integrated in the whole community rather than something exclusive. I think the Mardi Gras rebranding is spot on.
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At first I though why not Put the M at the top and the G at the bottom and make it look like a butterfly? But then I realized it would just look like an elephant…nice an simple. I like it.
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