Ahead of this year’s ICA Festival, Iggy Fenech chats to the festival’s promotion and marketing manager, Matthew Mamo, and art director, Andreas Azzopardi, to find out what’s behind this year’s rebranding of the annual Mcast showcase.

For years, Mcast’s Institute for the Creative Arts (ICA) Festival has been a way for the college to exhibit students’ work in the spheres of interiors, film, gra­phic design, game art and performing arts. In fact, it has played a vital role in connecting companies with students, as well as recruiting future pupils. The 2017 ICA Festival, however, aims to widen its scope.

“The ICA Festival is something Mcast has been doing for decades; from before I was a student, in fact,” explains Matthew Mamo, who is also a graphic design lecturer at the college. “This year, however, we’ve taken a new approach to elevate it from a student exhibition to a creative arts events… And this, I believe, is reflected in the brand that Andreas has created.”

Andreas, who is a final year graphic design student at Mcast, has been behind some incredible branding exercises, including the government’s social security rebranding. That particular design, which looks incredibly simple at first, held a very important message: children come first, and all adults (of whatever gender, ethnicity, religious belief or sexual orientation) are equal.

For the ICA Festival’s branding, however, Andreas took two of Mcast Mosta campus’ most recognisable elements – the clock tower and the Greek amphitheatre – and created a logo that would come to define the revamped event.

“We wanted it to be a brand that was supported by Mcast but which was also separate to the institution,” says Andreas, who works with branding agency Bloom Creative on a full-time basis. “Before now, the festival had a different theme each year, which also impacted its branding, but from this year on, the festival will have uniform branding to make it more recognisable by the public.”

More than just a rebranding initiative, however, the team behind this year’s ICA Festival has also come up with a whole calendar of workshops, seminars and talks to take place during the event.

“I think the work we do here in teaching the next generation of Malta’s creatives, particularly through critical thinking, is important and valuable not just for students but for all strata of social life,” continues Matthew.

“Each night will see a workshop on a topic directly related to one of the six departments at Mcast… There is a lot of fun stuff happening, including a workshop on how to get started in creating playable video games, which is not as difficult as it looks… Honestly!”

Running between Friday and July 4, the festival opens with a night dedicated to performing arts, with a special workshop by Malta’s national dance company, ŻfinMalta. Over the weekend and on Monday and Tuesday, each night will be dedicated to fine arts, creative media and photography, 3D design and interiors and, finally graphic design, game art and interactive media respectively, with workshops and seminars related to the particular field.

“Each department has been working incredibly hard for months on the projects they’ll be exhibiting… Just in the Graphic Design department, for example, we have a range of work that will interest businesses, entrepreneurs and the public,” Matthew continues. “This ranges from branding exercises to tactile design, as well as designs that were made specifically for people living with disabilities.”

As Matthew explains, he and the rest of the team hope that the ICA Festival will grow in its mission and become a stepping stone for students to find work once they leave Mcast, as well as for artists and performers to build a following within communities.

One of the ways in which the festival is doing this is through the Behance Portfolio Review, done in collaboration with Creatives Malta, were a number of local artists (including fashion designers, photographers and entrepreneurs) will come together to meet a number of aspiring designers and creatives, discuss their work and share valuable advice related to creative careers.

More than anything else, however, the ICA Festival aims to change the stigma that sometimes surrounds Mcast by showing that its students are not just taught their crafts but that they are ready to enter the professional world thanks to the education they receive at the college.

“Mcast has been a life-changing experience for me,” Andreas explains. “I was in a dead-end job before I joined the college, but it gave me the opportunity to do something I loved. More importantly, it helped me meet friends and lecturers who I have collaborated with… Mcast taught me how to believe in myself and my work!”

Open from 9am to 9pm each day, the ICA Festival will have something for everyone – including a drive-in cinema with food stalls (hey, that’s important too!) where audiences will be able to see the students’ work.

“I obviously encourage everyone to visit the static exhibits of the students themselves but I think the evening workshops are incredibly important. It’s an occasion for people to understand better what we do; and the talent is fantastic. But, more importantly to us, it’s an occasion for Mcast to give back to the community,” Matthew concludes.

Done with the full support of Tyrone Grima, the director of the institute in Mosta, Darren Duncan, a fellow graphic design lecturer, as well as the lecturing staff and the students, this year’s ICA Festival will surely feature some soon-to-be big-names in the creative world.

http://2017.icafestival.com/

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