Buddhafield is a project that runs an annual retreat programme, a field cafe, and a boutique festival, with the specific goal of putting Buddhist ideals into practice in nature. It is a member of the Triratna Buddhist Community, and emerged out of the free party scene of the mid-late 90s, itself an alternative to the very drug-fuelled counter culture of the time.

I wanted to convey something very definite about Buddhafield’s commitment to activities in the natural world, to growth as a spiritual concept, include a statement about actually being a bona fide Buddhist practice context … and bit of playfulness too!

The main font is Cooper Black, which I chose partly because it’s so recognisable, but also because already has a history with the counter culture (The Beach Boys and The Doors used it on album covers). The custom designed b and f characters were actually inspired by The Beatles movie Yellow Submarine, but the colours are the three traditional colours of Buddhism’s Three Jewels. The b is a kind of lotus-esque design with a solid counter to represent a “moon mat”. The idea was that the trailing curlicue would be used as a point of extension, for example as we see it in the Green Earth Awakening poster, below.

The only variation that entered into common use within the project was the circle-based emblem / badge design.

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