Mandela Forum’s new corporate identity
An award aiming at symbols and values.
This was a very particular competition for the Mandela Forum’s image. Above all, the first prize was not a sum of money but a trip to South Africa where the winner would be received by Mandela himself and would experience first-hand the reality of that country.
It is a prize which is clearly of very high symbolic significance.
In order to participate it was necessary to adhere to a general “project” which, in this specific case, was concerned with the refusal of the apartheid and adhesion to the battle for civil rights and for a society which is completely engaged in this struggle. The professionals who were called upon, therefore, had to construct their own brief and create the necessary influence, from a precise and demanding political and ethical idea. Since there was no money, a significant adhesion to the aims and objectives of the project, also in terms of communication, was the driving force.
The possible development of the initiative is also interesting. To name a structure like this after Nelson Mandela imposes certain important choices. Of course, the basketball games, the rock concerts or the conventions are not enough; a whole series of exhibitions, initiatives and concerts too, must be planned, which center their attention on the social aspect, in close relationship to the Mandela Foundation of the Città del Capo and to the organizations which deal with solidarity.
The graphic designers who took part in the competition for the brand name, should establish the core for every future communication activity of the Mandela Forum. They should essentially establish a board of graphic designers, a group of “contributing members” of the Forum, who can be consulted and turned to for help in every eventuality. In this way, an overall image of the Forum, which could express the most diligent and sensitive part of Italian graphics, could be quickly created.
Third element of interest the forms of participation.
The ten professionals who were sent to the competition (Giorgio Camuffo, Giovanna Durì, Cristina Chiappini, Beppe Chia, Stefano Rovai, Tapiro, Omar Vulpinari, Francesco Messina, Massimo Pitis, Mauro Panzeri) are widely–known and highly skilled graphic designers, amongst the best of those in the so-called “middle aged” range.
Each one of them also invited, however, out of free choice and under their own responsibility, a young emerging author (Matteo Rosso, Alex Weste, Agostino Linnea, Nicola Buiat, Carlo Rossolini, Pier Antonio Zanini, Alberto Cantone, Niccolò Mazzoni, Paolo Roggero, Gabriele Riva),
creating a type of change-over between generations, a thread of continuity in a graphic, artistic and professional discourse which continues and develops.
