Imandra Viking Fest 2023

MONCHEGORSK, MURMANSK OBLAST, Russia

The adventures of the last viking in the Imandra

Imandra Viking Fest is the largest festival in Monchegorsk of the regional level that attracts people from the whole Murmansk oblast every year. It all started as a personal initiative of a local resident and the true fan on scandinavian culture, Lev Denisov. Every year its scale was growning gradually and got support both from the corporation and town administration. With the support of Monchegorsk Development Agency, this cultural and music festival became the most successful and loved place to visit in Monchegorsk for people all around.

Client: Monchegorsk Development Agency

Work:
Design

2023

Unconcious lean of the local community towards the water element that discovers such great response between residents inspired us to get closer to the lake branding. The clash between the red hot iron and the cold water, that is reflected on the coat of arms of Solvychegodsk finds true response on this festival. The influence of this festival on the local people is so strong, that we even thought creating a territory brand based on this northern Scandinavian idea in 2021. We abandoned it lately, the same we abandoned the nearby Niiikel brand.

Natalia Makovsky

BRAND STRATEGIST

The most epic showcase of what Viking Fest actually is

New identity

Due to growing of the festival, there had to be implemented a well-thought design system. There was no need to change the recognisable face of the viking as the main mascot, so we made him more brutal and translated the title to the cyrillic version. The overall design for the fest is edgy and sharp. That makes it stand out from the rounded brand of Monchegorsk. We haven't mixed them up intentionally because the contrast was needed to highlight festival more.

Old festival identity

The canonical brutal viking face with two uncanonical horns in all sizes

Social media templates

We have prepared every single template for posting in social media, wrote a short documentation on how not to mess everything up and had been observing designers from the safe distance.

Set of templates made for festival designers

Iconset

Every viking have to be aware of his location on the ground, so we've design a set of icons to be placed on the local wayfinding system.

An excerpt from the set of scandinavian icons

Alena Domnicheva, one of the mose notorious entrepreneurs from Monchegorsk and owner of the Purpur Coffee asked us to create a set of little illustrative plaques to be sold with the appropriate rocks during the festivals according to the Viking Fest guidelines:

Zodiac signs cards, made for Alena Domnicheva (Purpur caffee), illustrated by Katya Semenova

Viking mascot

Traditionally, there was a Mascot, named Björn, who had been put on merch and acted as a character in social media. In a few words, people loved him. We game him a new look and a loving family in order to reflect the family open vibe for the festival.

A family was given to Björn by Scandinavian gods

As a follow up, we wrote a recommendation for the copywriters that would deal with communication on the example of some images like these ones:

Communicate it straight and without mercy

Online guidelines

Like all projects in Monchegorsk, we've put the results of our work online, available for every participant of the festival to work with design.

Online design guide

Imandra fest in 2024

Imandra viking fest still is the number one successful festival on the Kola Peninsula, yet focused more on the way broader period of culture with less accent on scandinavian ones. That's why it got rid of Viking in the title and visually. No big deal though, the festival kept its drive and vibe, while amount of people only grows.