Branding Treefort Music Festival’s Sustainability Team

Treefort Music Fest officially kicks off today. If you’ve never attended, Treefort is an ever-growing five-day music festival here in Boise that attracted over 9,000 attendees per day last year. 

If you’re a Treefort diehard and already purchased your wristband, you probably noticed something new this year. Part of the transaction now prompts attendees to take a sustainability pledge which includes promising to drink from reusable cups, using alternative transportation, and making use of the festival’s composting, recycling, and trash centers. This is one of several sustainability initiatives put into place by Treefort’s sustainability volunteer group—the Green Team—which is headed by David Broderick, Treefort’s director of sustainability. 

Focused on Crafting Sustainability Efforts

Anytime you bring together people for an event like Treefort, you’re going to create an environmental impact. The role of the Green Team is to lessen that impact, educate fellow music lovers, and keep the focus on the music. Green Team volunteers work at the heart of Treefort and engage in conversations with the public about trash, recycling, and composting. 

Many of the individuals who volunteer to be part of the Green Team are motivated more by the opportunity to help put Treefort among the most environmentally responsible festivals in the nation than by the discounted wristband and free t-shirt. 

A Star, er, Acorn Is Born

In an effort to help celebrate and support this group, this year we leveraged our social impact  partnership with Treefort by building the Green Team brand, starting with the logo. 

Based on Treefort’s existing brands, we knew the Green Team mark needed to be quirky while tying back to the group's ultimate focus: to help pioneer a greener Treefort. After several explorations, we landed on a design that worked on both levels.

Enter the Green Team Dancing Acorn

Its fun, carefree personality captures the vibe of Treefort and its meaning. The idea that one small acorn can grow into a massive oak and seed a whole forest is an apt metaphor for the Green Team’s efforts to spread sustainability practices to the entire community. We added the acorn to a patch-like design meant to mimic the look of other “stewards of the forest” like the Boy Scouts and the U.S. Forest Service.

Pioneering a More Sustainable Treefort and a Greener Community

Broderick’s goal for the Green Team includes involvement beyond the five-day festival, including volunteer events, community education, and even helping other festivals with their sustainability efforts. To help give the team an identifiable look for these events, we designed a t-shirt which plays on their new logo. 

Gone Treefortin’

Our office is looking forward to attending the festival and helping the Green Team achieve their mission. If you need to reach us, you can find us in the front row, reusable steel pints in hand.