RSF 20th Anniversary

About Rainbow Serpent Festival

Rainbow Serpent Festival is one of Australia’s largest and most internationally renowned festivals, celebrating art, music, expression, education and culture. It is widely regarded as one of the best music, art and lifestyle festivals in the world, with many travelling from the far reaches of the globe to join the community.

About the competition

To celebrate their 20 year anniversary milestone coming up in 2017, Rainbow Serpent Festival held a design competition to create artwork for the event to be displayed around the world via print and online media. With a certain design aesthetic, RSF wanted to create a design concept that was different to their previous years.

Their design considerations included:

  • Daytime happy colours – not dark electronic rave colours
  • Natural and organic
  • Tribal
  • Visionary art
  • Psychedelic
  • People need to look at this poster and immediately get a good “feel” of what the festival is all about.
  • No art/design elements from indigenous cultures
  • No usage of people’s faces
Empath Designs Rainbow Serpent Festival 20th Anniversary

I was excited to instill a personal reflection of what the festival meant to me. Having attended the festival for 7 years, the event has inspired some incredible growth within me, especially in a creative sense.

One of my favourite adventures each year at the festival is to watch the sunrise and sunset with my partner and friends, and this always seemed to be something many others also enjoyed. For me, watching the sun gently rise and set is relaxing, grounding and brings me clarity. I always feel grateful that I’m able to see another day, and to live my life.

With this in mind, I wanted to feature the sun as the focus of my design. Providing life to almost every living organism on our planet, the sun is a powerful symbol in many cultures. From this idea came the simple mandala of the sun, surrounded by subtle dancing flames to represent the free spirit that Rainbow offers.

Using a summer-inspired colour palette, I hoped to reflect a warm, daytime feel that spoke peace, love and happiness. Colourful stars represent togetherness, connection, and the feeling of belonging the festival community represents.

I was later asked to include the serpent logo by the committee crew, as an element they wanted to reference for the 20 year celebration.

Get in touch

Collaboration and connection

Contact Germaine regarding any commission work,collaboration inquiries or if you have any questions about the artwork.