Conjuring the myths & mysteries with AvalonCon

Creating a powerful and memorable presence

What is AvalonCon?

AvalonCon is a brand new conference, held for the very first time in the summer of 2021, which aims to bring together some of the biggest names and brightest minds in the worldwide magick, occult and paranormal research communities. Hosted in Glastonbury, UK, which is also the mythical Isle of Avalon from the Arthurian legend and conjured and organised by ceremonial magician, Marco Visconti.

Marco asked me if I would like to work on AvalonCon as part of their marketing team, and I was delighted to assist as not only is Marco my magickal mentor (and flesh and blood encyclopedia of mystical knowledge), but these communities hold a very dear place in my heart as a practitioner and lover of the esoteric mysteries.

Services provided;

Logo Design
Graphic Design
Web Design & Development
Merch Design
Illustration

Identifying the intention

As this conference was created during the COVID-19 pandemic, AvalonCon decided to offer a very limited number of in-person tickets to the conference, and an unlimited number of online tickets for streaming the event. This meant that AvalonCon’s online presence needed to be strong and bold as this is where the majority of the hype would build and where a community would form.

Marco had already been working on a branding concept when he asked me to join the team, and he had created a logo idea featuring a beautiful illustration of St. Michael’s Tower, drawn by the multi-talented artist, Madeline Sinclaire.

My job was to refine this concept into a vibrant brand identity for AvalonCon, as well as producing promotional graphics for their social media accounts, creating a few pieces of merchandise, and building a website to allow the public to read about the conference, learn about the speakers on the lineup, and purchase tickets to the event.

Adding a little fun to arcane imagery

Inspired by the spirit of the place

The most prominent part of this logo is the illustration of St. Michael’s Tower.

This is a landmark tower on the Glastonbury Tor hill which is known for being one of the most spiritual sites in the country. And since the conference is held in Glastonbury, and named after its ancient name of Avalon, this addition to the logo immediately communicates where this conference is located and its tie to the spiritual traditions.

St. Michael is also a very important and prominent force in the western esoteric traditions. He is Archangel Michael, perhaps the most well known of all Archangels. Archangel Michael is associated with the element of fire in ceremonial magick, which is also associated with the colour red. Fire (and red) is passion, will and action, and what better colour to represent magick, which was defined as “the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will” by the late English occultist, Aleister Crowley.

The colour red is also commonly associated with the Goddess Babalon, who is the Great Mother Goddess and the image of the divine feminine in the occult system of Thelema, of which many of the speakers and attendees of the conference practice. Babalon is also known as The Scarlet Woman, and her other symbols include the heptagram (or seven-pointed star) which is used throughout the website design and the social media graphics, and the Holy Grail which is also an important motif in the Arthurian legend.

For a bit of fun and to tie in the paranormal, we also added a ghost and goblin illustration. Fairy lore is also a huge part of the UK’s spiritual history, but in order to not crowd the already detailed logo too much, we decided to use a more ethereal blackletter font for the AvalonCon type to represent this. It also creates some nice contrast against the lines and structure of the tower, bringing in some flowing feminine elements with the strong masculine imagery.

Fig 01; A logo collaboratively designed for AvalonCon, concept originally formulated by Marco Visconti, and featuring an illustration of St. Michael’s Tower by Madeline Sinclaire

Projecting the message far and wide

A graphic I designed to announce Damien Echols as a speaker at AvalonCon. — *Fig 02; I created a set of branded images for AvalonCon to use on their various social platforms*

A black t-shirt featuring the front and back of a festival-style t-shirt I designed for AvalonCon. — *Fig 03; A t-shirt I designed for AvalonCon featuring the 2021 lineup, inspired by music festival t-shirts*

Fig 04; The marketing website I designed and built for AvalonCon

A testimony of faith

I always insisted that one of the differences between a simple designer and a real Artist, it’s that the latter is able to listen to the incoherent ramblings of the customer, make sense of it, and then come up with something that will blow them away.

A gargantuan task, a true Herculean ordeal: the fine-tuned ability of the Alchemist to transmute Lead into Gold. And that’s precisely who Sammi is: a real Artist, an Alchemist of the image. A Visionary, through and through.

She will be able to crush your expectations, and give you what you only glimpsed but could never think was possible to explain to others. And she will do that while working on super tight schedules if needed, always giving valuable advice, and finding the correct formula between beauty and functionality.

Move over, web designers: this is the New Aeon of the Alchemist of the Image, and Sammi embodies it through and through.
Marco Visconti – Co-founder of AvalonCon

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