The 2008 Melbourne Dream festival is an initiative of the National Australia Bank or the NAB. The festival has a distinctive image that has all the signs of being an underground cultural campaign. Yet what makes the concept seems more like a sophisticated marketing programme, (than a spirited cunning cultural campaign), is the budget it has available to run a small space ad campaign Melbourne‘s largest tabloid paper — The Herald Sun; the frequency prime time television commercials spots and these slick stick up posters (a street poster site has been painted out with white paint and then the finely cut out photocopies applied).

If one visits the website this festival doesn‘t seem to have a curator, or an artistic director, or a graphic design outfit for that matter (with such a distinctive campaign under their belt) not willingly crediting their unique output. Many questions come to mind querying this process. One has no issue with corporate companies getting involved in their own cultural programmes. One sees in this instance the cache that the word ‘festival‘ brings to an event. One also sees that the act of a festival that credits the team behind the project is an act that assigns an event with cultural credentials.  The simple act of crediting the creative team behind the project — the curators, artist directors, producers, the sponsors and even the lowly graphic designer underwrites the integrity of the cultural product on offer to the public and potential audiences.

All said, the people who developed the graphic work behind this campaign deserve a mention. The graphic in not a new idea, never-the-less the overall effect is very distinctive and intriguing. The irony is hidden with this sample of stick up images. If one pays attention to the act that this campaign covered up, the poster painted over promotes the latest series, the third series, of the Mighty Boosh (one of the UK‘s most original and dream like comedy exports), a draw card act worthy of any Dream Festival.

Visit the Dream Festival here. Visit the Mighty Boosh here.

Comment?