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Karlovy Vary Unveils Studio Najbrt’s Visual Identity for Its Double-Anniversary Celebration
The Apex Times

THE APEX TIMES

Culture/The Apex Times/Jun 22, 4:05 AM EDT

Karlovy Vary Unveils Studio Najbrt’s Visual Identity for Its Double-Anniversary Celebration

Studio Najbrt’s Jonatan Kuna and Aleš Najbrt describe how the festival’s 2026 celebratory look was designed to speak to filmmakers and to the broader audience of film-goers.

2 min readEditor-approved Apex article

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival has released the visual identity for its 2026 double-anniversary program, a package created by Studio Najbrt and presented as part of the festival’s on-the-ground and digital look for the current edition. The branding effort, explained by Studio Najbrt’s Jonatan Kuna and Aleš Najbrt, was built to carry the festival’s celebration beyond industry premieres and into signage, schedules, and other materials meant for everyday attendees.

In an interview tied to the festival’s announcement, Kuna and Najbrt said the identity was designed not only for filmmakers and stars, but for all visitors and film lovers. That framing guided the practical design decisions, including how the festival’s graphics would be used across multiple touchpoints over the course of the event, from promotional materials to wayfinding elements for guests moving through the venues.

Studio Najbrt, which has worked on visual systems for cultural events and screen-related projects, approached the double-anniversary concept as a unified identity rather than a set of disconnected graphics. The designers described the goal as creating a coherent “system” that could scale across different applications while still reading as festival-themed and celebratory during the festival season.

The designers also highlighted the role of consistency in a festival context. A visual identity for an event of this scale must hold up across print, digital, and in-person materials, and it has to remain legible and recognizable when used by different teams and partners, the designers said. In practice, that means establishing typographic choices, color direction, and graphic rules that can be repeated reliably from ticketing and program materials to online promotion and venue signage.

The Karlovy Vary festival’s double-anniversary framing is central to why the identity is being rolled out as its own package for 2026. In their remarks, Kuna and Najbrt positioned the project as an opportunity to make the celebration visible in a way that includes audiences, not just the film industry. That emphasis reflects the broader communications reality of major festivals, where the audience experience, navigation, and information flow are part of the overall cultural product.

No further details on specific campaign elements, production timelines, or which individual pieces of the identity are included were provided in the reporting excerpt. The next stage for festival-goers and the public is to see the identity implemented across the festival’s venues and platforms during the 2026 edition, as the branding becomes part of the experience of attending films, talks, and festival events.

Why It Matters

  • The visual identity will affect how audiences recognize and navigate Karlovy Vary’s double-anniversary program across venues and platforms.
  • A festival-wide design system can reduce confusion for attendees by supporting consistent typography, color direction, and graphic rules in public-facing materials.
  • Because major festivals rely on repeatable communications, the branding work can influence partner usage of graphics for scheduling, programs, and wayfinding.
  • The emphasis on including general visitors alongside filmmakers reflects how festivals increasingly treat audience experience and accessibility as part of the event’s cultural output.

Sources

Key Facts

  • Karlovy Vary International Film Festival released its 2026 visual identity for a double-anniversary celebration.
  • The project was created by Studio Najbrt, with Jonatan Kuna and Aleš Najbrt discussing the design approach.
  • Designers said the identity was created for both industry participants and all festival visitors and film lovers.
  • The studio described the branding as a cohesive system meant to work across multiple applications and formats during the festival.
  • The identity rollout is intended to shape how attendees experience information and navigation during the festival edition.