THE REBRAND

Feedback from the first years event was that it was too niche. It catered to the Asian Handpan community which brought a lot of new people to Pai and Dreamscape (the venue) for the first time.

But for the people of Pai and Chiang Mai it was seen as a enthusiast event. “If I don’t play Handpan why would I come?” This caused a lot of people to overlook the event even though there was a variety of incredible live music likely all would enjoy.

It was clear I needed to rebrand it, although very reluctantly as I liked the aesthetic and the thought of creating the ENTIRE brand again and starting from scratch really did not appeal to me.

There is a lot to think of with a brand..
Name, colours, typography, logo, feeling and audience..

I wanted this years to feel like an evolution rather than a brand new event so its clear to last years attendees that the atmosphere will still be the same while also showing its bigger and better. In my mind colours would be the best way to convey this.

The primary colour for first years event were various shades of quite non-offensive blue as shown on the top colour palette on the graphic.

The blue needed to stay, with improvements, but that was the subconscious binding to the old identity. Adding the second primary colour as orange works on two levels, its a complimentary colour meaning it contrasts harmoniously to the blue, secondly because its my favourite colour so why not..

I spent a while scrolling through Adobe Colour looking for reference, inspiration or any shred of guidance. I picked out these palettes (the next set of stacked 6 colours underneath the OG brand colours). I wasn’t really feeling these so I did what any designer or 80% of the people on the internet do nowadays, asked ChatGPT for help picking colours based on my themes, location, emotions and idea I wanted to convey.

Mr.GPT gave me the last to palettes of which I chose the top one. I really felt this conveyed earthy, natural, calm, grounded vibe while still being harmonious together.

Throughout this project I really realised how much of an incredible tool Ai is and can be for designers. When used consciously and intentionally it can speed up and allow us to create faster more thoughtful outcomes.

THE COLOURS

THE NAME

Arguably more important (but less fun) than the colours is the name. Going from Pai Pan Gathering to something that need to feels connected to the original identity. Obvious solution would be to keep Pai as the first word. Dropping the phrase Pai Pan turned out to be in our interest as it has an interesting slang meaning in Japanese. You are encouraged to google it.

It was also a good idea to move away from Gathering as its a limiting the event to grow and compete with festivals in the area. People would more likely be excited to travel to a festival than a gathering.

Handpan music sits within the class of world instruments. Didgeridoo, mouth harp, other kind of ethnic and niche instruments from the world, and the Handpan. Logically to grow the festival it would need to expand into this scene and no longer be “Just a handpan festival” This puts it on a larger global scene rather than sharing the space with other dedicated handpan enthusiat gatherings (as there are many). This move allows us to connect with larger audience, more variety of performers and remove the growth ceiling a lot of handpan events have as its a small interconnected community.

A few name ideas for you to see the general direction we were thinking…
Pai Resonance Festival
Pai Valley Echos
Pai Global Music Festival

We had a lot and I also brainstormed with ChatGPT on this but eventually landed on Pai World Rhythms through discussions with friends.

The “World” signals the world music category and rhythms has a kind of tribal heartbeat feel.
It felt perfect although a bit of a mouthful if you at festival to the end of it.

Safe to say I now know how to spell rhythms. I was amazed at how difficult that word is and still often have to double check ive spelt it correct.

PAI WORLD RHYTHMS FESTIVAL