Elmwood

Melbourne Writers Festival
The write stuff for a Melbourne cultural juggernaut

The Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) is a proud and longstanding cultural institution in Melbourne. When it lost its mojo in 2005, we sharpened our pencils and set to work making its look, feel and communications more fun and, ultimately, more successful.

Drawing inspiration
Our big idea for the 2006 MWF campaign came out of nowhere, literally. After working through a bunch of concepts, we still felt something was missing: a smile. When one of our designers casually scribbled smiley faces on a snap of some pencils, he not only raised a laugh, we also got our idea.

2B or not 2B?
There was no question about it. With the MWF organisers wanting to give the festival a warmer personality and a penchant for fun, the smiling pack of pencils was the way forward. It also nicely balanced ideas of ‘writing’ and ‘festival’ in one simple, distinctive image.

The write stuff
Following the success of our 2006 campaign the MWF asked us to not only continue the theme in 2007, but to take it further. “Can do!” we said, grinning from ear to ear.

Have you seen this design?
Featuring scribbled faces on pencils, erasers, and pencil sharpeners, our 2007 campaign used a classic ‘WANTED’ theme to get noticed. Simple black and white posters were put up on street poles, walls and tram stops all over the city and, well, word started to spread.

Write on!
By combining a cheeky idea, some well-chosen words and seriously simple design, we managed to raise smiles all over town before, during and after the 2006 and 2007 MWFs.