JAZZING UP THE BRANDING FOR LOVE SUPREME FESTIVAL
REFOCUSING THE SOUND OF EUROPE'S BIGGEST OUTDOOR JAZZ FESTIVAL.
Love Supreme had reached a crossroads. Europe's biggest outdoor jazz festival needed more than a visual lift, it needed a reason to matter again. We came in to bring both: a creative refresh and the narrative focus the event had started to lose.
Finding the story in the sound
Before a single design decision, we ran a series of workshops with the Love Supreme team, giving space for the different views held across the organisation to be aired, challenged and, ultimately, aligned. What came out of it was a single, cohesive foundation the whole team could build the festival's future on.
Every aesthetic choice that followed was backed by that story. Nothing floated free of the narrative, it all pulled in the same direction. The result was a positioning line that now anchors everything the festival does: Honouring the Past. Amplifying the Future.
Honouring the past. amplifying the future.
Love Supreme has been building trust, credibility and hearts since 2013. The strategy work was never about starting again, it was about giving that strength a clearer, more confident voice. We defined Love Supreme's role as the UK's only large-scale festival dedicated to jazz, soul and their descendants: a cultural landmark, not just another weekend on the summer circuit, one that connects Herbie Hancock to Ezra Collective in the same breath.
Four strategic pillars now shape everything from programming to signage:
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Musical Integrity – real artists, real craft
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Discovery with Depth – the thrill of finding something new, rooted in authenticity, not algorithm
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Soulful Togetherness – a festival where jazz purists and first-timers feel equally at home
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Warmth & Wit – knowledgeable, never elitist; passionate, never preachy
To speak to a festival audience that ranges from casual Skimmers to lifelong Diver fans, we built a tiered messaging framework, layering content so the brand meets every kind of fan where they are, then invites them deeper into the story.The creative direction draws from a genuine love of jazz and everything it's gone on to influence, hip hop especially. It's the sound our studio grew up on, and it runs through the branding, the campaign and the on-site experience.
We set out to push festival branding forward rather than lean in on it. New and classic sit side by side, built to evolve rather than date, deliberately steering clear of the generic, hegemonic look that's crept across so much of today's festival landscape.
the result: a stronger festival and a new audience
The rebrand gave Love Supreme the foundation for one of its strongest ever years for ticket sales, and brought in an entirely new audience: social following grew by almost 50% since the creative refresh.
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Looking to engage audiences with a strategic-led rebrand? Get in touch.
WHAT WE DID
BRAND STRATEGY
CREATIVE DESIGN
ONSITE SIGNAGE
STAGE ANIMATIONS
ADVERTISING
SOCIAL MOTION ASSET SUITE
THE BRAND TRUTH
THE BRAND TRUTH
The approach the Hey! What? team took combined both visual and narrative elements to ensure that both worked together. Working through a series of workshops where a variety of internal views could be aired, Hey! What? were able to tie together the different views our team had of the show into a cohesive foundation for the future of Europe's biggest outdoor jazz festival.
The rebrand work done provided the foundation for one of the festival's strongest ever years in terms of ticket sales, and engaged an entirely new audience in the event, shown by an almost 50% growth in social following since the creative refresh. We look forward to continuing to evolve the festival with the Hey! What? team over the coming years!
JAMES WARD
Head of Festival Marketing - U-Live
