More than 50 countries around the world celebrate Carnival. Throughout the year you can find grand parades of people in intricately decorated costumes dancing to roaring, rhythmic music in cities like Rio de Janeiro, Notting Hill, Toronto, and New York. Still, none match the ecstatic experience of Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago.

Here, Carnival is a season with over a month of calypso and steelpan competitions, parties (known as fetes), and reenactments of Carnival’s origins. It all comes to a head before dawn on Carnival Monday as J’Ouvert, French for “day opens”, kicks off the two-day street parade which takes over the entire capital and other areas with music trucks, drink carts, and roves of people in their most euphoric state.

Having inspired festivals across the globe, Trinidad’s Carnival, often referred to as the “Greatest Show on Earth,” is a rich part of this twin-island nation’s culture and history. Today it is celebrated by Caribbean natives and non-Caribbean people alike in Trinidad and in the many off-shoot festivals begun by the Caribbean diaspora elsewhere in the world (Caribana, Miami Carnival, etc.).

However, culture is ever-evolving and Carnival with it. In 2004, when there was a clear gap in the Carnival market, TRIBE stepped up to the plate offering the world’s first all-inclusive Carnival band. Since then they’ve become the benchmark for the masquerading experience and continue revolutionising the industry. TRIBE now stands 6 bands strong with Bliss, Pure, Rogue, Lost Tribe, and Harts under their banner, catering to different demographics.

Upon nearing their 20th anniversary, TRIBE engaged us for an updated visual and verbal identity to commemorate this historic milestone. They wanted to communicate their evolution while reminding masqueraders that, at the core, TRIBE is the same band it was at the beginning – prioritising innovation, culture, and community while providing that infectious euphoria of Carnival that cannot be put into words.

Our team developed a new visual identity system that includes an updated symbol, wordmark, typography, refreshed colour palette, and a flexible and dynamic pattern that embodies the essence of revelry and coming together of people as a Tribe.

To craft the new tagline we considered human nature. For our very survival, people are designed to seek out community as such ‘tribes’ in the most basic terms will always exist. In the same way, TRIBE has become an ineluctable fact of Carnival. “Wherever there are people, there’s a TRIBE” captures the assured nature of TRIBE as a band that has transformed Carnival for generations and will continue to do so.

The new symbol took its cue from TRIBE’s history. Their original logo memorialised their first year on the road where they presented an interpretation of traditional Fancy Indian Mas. However, 19 years and countless other presentations later, there was a need to represent much more. For an inclusive portrayal that takes the logo from merely recognizable to distinct and iconic, we designed a mark that is at once a ‘T’ and a ‘Head Piece’ embodying both female and male masqueraders, contemporary & traditional masquerade with more elegance and an air of regality.

Looking at ancient tribes around the world, there was one common thread – wall carvings as a mode of communication. We saw it fit for TRIBE to have its own simplified language. With the tagline as our guiding compass and masqueraders as our muse, we gathered resources on body movement and various Carnival dance forms. The letterforms of the refined wordmark also provided inspiration. Sharper shapes like hands and feet imitate the angular structure in the letter forms. At the same time, curvier silhouettes like the heads of our masqueraders were taken directly from the counter of the letter ‘B’. We then added the contours of items associated with the season including feathers, wings, headpieces, armbands, and beads to build the atmosphere and tell the story of the magic of Carnival and TRIBE.