Field Notes

Sundar Prize Film Festival

Storytelling as reclamation. Branding as justice. Strategy as community care.

Summary

Year

2023-Present 🎬

Offerings

Design – Visual identity, logo, web design
Strategy – Festival roadmap, Luminaries program consulting
Story – Newsletters, community voice, brand messaging
Stewardship – Youth engagement strategy, founder mediation, equity-first planning

Industry

Arts, Film, Culture

Sundar Prize, named after the Hindi/Punjabi word for “beautiful,” is a socially charged, globally scoped film festival committed to stories that are often silenced: climate justice, queer love, caste advocacy, criminal justice reform, interracial kinship, and more.

Co-founded by Alex Sangha and Vinay Giridhar whilst powered by Sher Vancouver Society, it launched with enormous vision — aiming to become an IMDb-qualifying festival and FilmFreeway Alliance member in its very first year. But the branding, language, and infrastructure weren’t yet aligned with that dream. That’s where we came in.

Our Approach

Himmat Media entered as a full-spectrum partner: part brand house, part cultural doula. We held space for political nuance, accessibility needs, and the heart of community-rooted storytelling. Through co-design, long-haul consulting, and vibe-tuned brand language, we built Sundar Prizes’ skeleton, skin, and soul.

We also advised on festival growth, accessibility frameworks, founder communications, and Luminaries: a youth-centred filmmaking program for underserved schools, weaving in storytelling, long-term vision with stunning, brand-aligned visuals that would appeal to partners, stakeholders, sponsors, and of course – their core audience.

Design Process & Strategy

Logo & Visual Identity

  • Over 12 iterations led to the final Sundar reel: iconic, clean, print-friendly, and recognisable on the global stage.

  • The golden yellow hue was a nod to Sher Vancouver, joy as resistance, and a gender-expansive aesthetic.

Website & User Experience

  • Designed a minimalist, mobile-responsive WordPress site with accessibility in mind — clean, focused, easy to navigate.

Language & Messaging

  • Rebuilt the brand voice: one that holds advocacy and joy in the same breath.

  • Every newsletter, tagline, and announcement feels like it came from a trusted community member — not a corporate ad agency.

Strategic Growth

  • Developed a 1–3–5 year roadmap for programmatic expansion

  • Created internal frameworks to help communicate with sponsors, educators, and underserved youth — without condescension or stigma

Symbolic Simplicity Meets Global Recognition

The logo’s film reel motif was selected for its timeless cinematic language — a nod to the heart of the festival while remaining minimal and striking. It holds its own across mediums: whether on a billboard, t-shirt, or laurels, the icon remains instantly recognisable and globally relevant.

Yellow as Reclamation & Radiance

The golden-yellow palette honours Joy as Justice — reclaiming vibrancy as power, not frivolity. It's a colour not bound by gender, but bursting with symbolic associations: hope, resilience, warmth, and legacy. Yellow also ties back to Sher Vancouver’s roots, grounding the festival in community while pointing toward luminous futures.

Built for Longevity, Adaptability & Artistry

Rather than locking into a static look, the logo was designed as a modular vessel — iconic yet abstract enough to evolve annually with bespoke brushstrokes, textures, and colourways. It offers the flexibility for artistic expansion while remaining a constant signature of the festival’s fierce identity.

Results & Impact

  • Full rebrand and identity system

  • IMDb-qualifying festival status achieved in Year 1

  • 35–50% newsletter open rates — industry-shattering community engagement

  • Luminaries Program launched with integrity, clarity, and scalable long-term vision

  • Messaging that resonates across classrooms, donor tables, and red carpets

  • Long-term strategic plan in place for festival growth, social impact, and continued global-scale recognition

  • Recognised for programming films that are often banned elsewhere — on caste, climate, queerness, and justice

Sundar Prize asked for top-notch, world-class — and we delivered more than polish.


We built a vessel for truth-telling.


This is branding as justice, storytelling as resistance, and long-term strategy rooted in care.

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