Student Designer steals hearts with kaleidoscopic poster
Updated: Oct 5
Feast your eyes upon this year’s festival poster!
Welcome to the kaleidoscope. Just don’t stare into the centre for too long… we can’t guarantee where the rabbit hole leads!
Since the early day of Made in the West, it has been something of a tradition for us to surprise you all with an amazing poster design that captures the personality of each year’s festival.
This year, we knew we wanted to do something memorable, as a celebration of all the stories that have passed through our midst over the last 15 years.
Our brief was deliberately big. We imagined a dream-like lens into the past: reflected and refracted shapes, mesmerising in its view as we looked through the echoes of time.
When we shared the concept with the design students at Western Sydney University’s Burrow Studio, we knew we were giving them a creative challenge that they would run with!
Enter Vicky Xie, a fourth-year Bachelor of Design student majoring in Visual Communications at Western Sydney University, and the designer responsible for sending Made in the West tumbling down the rabbit hole.
Vicky took that challenge and disappeared headfirst into Wonderland.
‘I was really excited when I saw the theme for this year! Bright and mesmerizing colours? Kaleidoscope? Count me in!’ she says. ‘I love creating colorful pieces and I knew I wanted to create an intricate design to capture the nature of a kaleidoscope.’
And she really did!
Of course, getting from an enormous vision to one finished design required plenty of experimentation.
‘I had to narrow [the ideas] down to a few,’ says Vicky, ‘since the kaleidoscope was quite a broad theme with many potentials for ideas.’
That process ultimately led Vicky towards the intricate and playful design you see in the finished poster.
‘I wanted to capture the trippy feeling of the getting swallowed up by a rabbit hole with the layered rings and refracting elements.’
‘That’s how I came up with the additional theming for the poster; Alice in Wonderland,’ says Vicky.
‘Its chaotic and psychedelic theming was fitting, and not to mention it’s a super fun theme. I had a blast designing it and went full wonderland style with the imagery and characters.’
We love that this iconic film gave Vicky another visual language to play with!
The card suits become characters, the Cheshire Cat appears from the darkness, the White Rabbit races through the composition (late for a Made in the West screening, perhaps?) and the entire design just spirals in towards its centre.
The deeper you look, the more there is to find!
It’s playful and a little strange, with just enough visual chaos to reward another look. We love it!
Designing and creating is obviously lifelong passion for Vicky, and studying Visual Design at Western was a logical career move.
‘I’ve been creating for as long as I remember,’ says Vicky. ‘I was always drawing things during class and created so many stories in my sketchbook. I’ve got stacks of folders full of art! So… I knew that I wanted to pursue design as my career.’
The collaboration between Burrow Design Studio and Made in the West is the result of a longstanding partnership with Western Sydney University.
Each year, our collaboration creates opportunities for WSU students to put their skills into practice on a live creative project.
Students have joined the festival through design, photography, marketing, event production, internships and volunteering — gaining experience while contributing directly to one of Western Sydney’s longest-running celebrations of local screen talent.
The poster design project with Burrow is one of our favourite projects each year, as it gives the students an opportunity to be creative while also working with us as a real world client. There are clear expectations, but as creatives ourselves, we love encouraging them to push the boundaries and surprise us a little, to come up with a design that will truly impress our audience.
And they always do! Every year we are so impressed by the visual intrigue and exploration that we get to enjoy in the poster designs by Burrow Studio.
To think, that all these amazing designs over the years have come from up-and-coming design creatives from across Western Sydney just makes us so happy!
This year, ten students pitched individual concepts for the festival design. We always love the process working with new creatives, seeing how they each take unique directions with our initial vision and challenge our expectations in new ways.
When Vicky first heard that her design had been selected from among the group, her response was wonderfully relatable.
‘I paced around the room giddy when I received the email,’ she says. ‘It was super unexpected!’
We’re sure Vicky is particularly looking forward to seeing the finished design take on a life of its own at the festival, printed on life-size cinema posters and banners at scale.
‘It is so different seeing things in full size, compared to your tiny pad screen! I’m excited for others to see my work.’
So are we, Vicky!
Congratulations again, because we think you’re amazingly talented and we can’t wait for the next opportunity to work with you again on a project.
Keep an eye out, everyone, because we have a feeling this won’t be the last time you see Vicky Xie’s amazing work up in lights!
You can follow Vicky’s journey as she continues to design her beautiful artwork! Check out her portfolio on Linktree, follow her on Instagram or connect with her on LinkedIn!
Be sure to tell her how amazing you think her work is!
And meanwhile, keep your eyes peeled friends, because you’ll be seeing plenty more of Vicky’s design over the months ahead — around town, across our digital platforms and of course, lighting up Event Cinemas Liverpool as our #SummerofFilm begins on 28 November with the Opening Night Gala and continues throughout the entire summer season.
Do you want to see YOUR FILM on the big screen this summer? There’s still time to be part of our the festival if you submit your film this week!
Drama, comedy, documentary, animation, horror, sci-fi, music video or something that refuses to fit neatly into a box: we love discovering the enormous range of stories being made across our region.
The year's best short films will become part of our 2026 Festival program with the opportunity to screen in-cinema this December as part of our 15th anniversary #SummerofFilm. Selected films will go on for a second showcase in the new year!
Have you heard about our BIG plans for this year’s festival season? Save the date and read all about it here!
Made in the West has always been about more than what happens on the cinema screen. We want the festival to be a place where emerging creatives can make connections, test their skills, find collaborators and become part of the Western Sydney creative community.
So come and join us as we celebrate 15 years of films and this wonderful filmmaking community on Saturday 28 November and the three-week series of short films to follow.
The full program will be announced at the end of October and we’re sure you’ll want to catch more than a few of those local films screening at our hometown cinema in Liverpool.
Right in the heart of Western Sydney suburbs – you can’t get much more #westie than that.
Be there to see the spectacle!
And stay tuned for more news in the days ahead as we reveal more of this year’s plans and eventually the full festival program.