Cro Cro Land

Presented by our local cultural site, the Croydonist, we launched Cro Cro Land in Croydon in 2019 to celebrate the area’s rich musical history. The mission: to bring guitar bands back to the birthplace of punk. We curated a handpicked line-up of the best in indie and alternative music by both established and up-and-coming bands and placed gender equality at the heart of the festival, from a balanced bill to a crew where women were fairly represented. 

The 2019 festival was a truly collaborative event with input on the curation from various grass-roots music organisations, support from the Arts Council, Croydon Council and local businesses. We recently ran the festival sequel in April 2024 with the same ethos.

The chosen name plays on celebrating the musical history of the CR0 postcode, as well as being a nod to the blockbuster film title La La Land. The 2019 stages, Town Square, Concrete Playground and Tram Stop were so named as destinations in the ‘Land’, with a link back to the town of Croydon.

We wanted the brand identity to evoke a DIY feeling of working together in the independent music scene, as well as linking back to the Croydonist’s visual identity. An intentionally clunky gif brought the launch logo to life – repeating the Croydonist’s symbol manyfold, to form a slinky-esque shape that dances through the words and blends together the traditional gender colours of pink and blue.

In 2019 the palette colours were then used to differentiate the three stages on social media and at the event. It was important that the brand identity translated easily across various media (and sizes), from event signage, banners and large-scale graphics, to posters, flyers, social media content, website, festival programme, wristbands, merchandise and clothing for crew.

In 2024 we refreshed the visual identity – we wanted it to be clearly recognisable as the original brand, but a lot had happened in the five years between the festivals, from Covid and the cost of living crisis to technological and cultural changes. We intentionally streamlined the system and employed a positive and gender-neutral colour palette to look ahead to more hopeful times within the arts sector.