Cartwheel Arts is a community-focused arts organisation based in Rochdale. They deliver creative projects that bring people together, promote social inclusion, and celebrate cultural diversity. One of their flagship events is the Darnhill Festival — a long-running, family-friendly celebration that showcases arts, performance, and local pride in the Darnhill estate.
Cartwheel Arts asked me to design a folded flyer for the 2025 Darnhill Festival, themed Carnival of the Animals. The brief called for a vibrant, family-friendly aesthetic that captured the festival’s spirit while reflecting the local community — with nods to animals found around the Darnhill estate, like hedgehogs, foxes, birds, and insects.
They needed a folded A4 flyer (producing four A5 panels) with space for event details, a schedule, community activities, and funder acknowledgements. The front panel also had to work as a standalone promotional flyer for separate distribution. With a wide audience — families, children, performers, and funders — the design had to balance fun, clarity, and professionalism.
I started with a clear layout plan: four A5 panels across a folded A4 sheet. Page 1 would act as the hero panel — strong enough to work as a flyer on its own — with the remaining panels housing the programme, performer details, and acknowledgements.
Visually, I leaned into the Carnival of the Animals theme using a textured, layered illustration style that mixed animal motifs with a hand-crafted, cut-out aesthetic. Watercolour textures and paper-style overlays gave each character personality — playful enough for children, yet polished enough for a broad audience.
To reflect Darnhill’s diversity, I avoided generic “festival” clichés and focused instead on warmth, rhythm, and accessibility. The design pace was deliberate, making key information easy to scan while keeping the energy and colour consistent throughout.
The final piece was a vibrant, folded A4 flyer with four clearly structured A5 panels. The front worked perfectly as a standalone handout, while the inner panels offered a clear, engaging mix of event details, timings, and community acknowledgements.
Custom illustrations brought the Carnival of the Animals theme to life — from hedgehogs to foxes — setting a welcoming tone and creating instant visual appeal. Paired with accessible typography and a confident colour palette, the result was a flyer that was both a practical marketing tool and a warm invitation to the festival.
Printed copies were distributed in the run-up to the event across schools, community centres, and partner venues, ensuring strong local reach.
