Designing a brand new identity for Stoke Book Festival

Launching a brand new book festival means starting with a blank page.

For the very first Stoke Book Festival, we had the opportunity to shape how the event would be seen from day one. With no existing identity to evolve, we needed to create something that felt unmistakably connected to books and storytelling, while giving Stoke-on-Trent’s new festival a character of its own.

The challenge was finding the balance between familiar literary cues and an identity that the festival could genuinely call its own.

Here’s how it came together.

Open book ‘S’
Books were always going to be part of the visual language, but simply using a book icon risked feeling too familiar. Instead, the icon combines an ‘S’ for Stoke with the form of an open book, creating a simple literary reference that is distinctive to the festival rather than relying on a generic book symbol.

Radiating pages
The fine lines fan out from the centre, like pages opening from a spine, bringing a sense of movement to the icon. We also liked the idea of the lines suggesting stories and ideas spreading outwards, adding another layer of meaning without making the literary reference too literal.

Stacked wordmark
Stacking the words across three lines gives the logo a compact shape that works naturally alongside the icon. It also gives the festival more presence, helping the name feel confident and established without becoming too formal.

Colour emphasis
‘Stoke’ and ‘Book’ share the deeper navy to give the wordmark a strong foundation, then bring in the brighter orange for ‘Festival’. That small shift adds warmth and energy, while giving the more celebratory side of the event a little extra emphasis.

Contemporary typography
The clean letterforms feel modern, approachable and highly legible. Their simplicity balances the more expressive icon, helping the overall identity feel creative and accessible rather than overly traditional or academic.

But much of the personality comes from details you might not consciously notice. Tighter spacing gives the wordmark greater presence, while the contrast between thicker and finer strokes introduces a subtle editorial quality and connection to publishing.

Curved and flared details soften the letterforms, helping the typography feel friendlier without losing its confidence. Even the proportions have been carefully considered, with rounded letters such as the ‘S’, ‘o’ and ‘e’ extending fractionally beyond the baseline so they appear visually balanced alongside flatter forms.

These are small decisions individually, but together they strongly contribute to how the identity feels.

Reversed icon
A strong identity also needs to stay consistent across different applications.

For reversed versions of the icon, the page lines are made slightly thinner to compensate for the optical effect that can make white elements appear heavier against dark backgrounds.

The artwork is technically different, but the results feel visually the same. It’s a small example of how consistency in branding doesn’t always mean treating every application identically.

Bringing it all together

Good branding isn’t about adding detail for the sake of it. It’s about making lots of considered decisions that all point in the same direction.

For Stoke Book Festival, every element of the identity has been designed to balance literary character with a contemporary, accessible feel, while giving a brand new event something distinctive it can build on from the very beginning.

And now comes the best bit…seeing the brand leave our screens and become part of the festival itself.

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