Wit, heart and collective memory – visual communication for the WGM

Six finalists, 11 projects and the winner. The competition for the visual identification of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum was an interesting and inspiring event, says Miłka Skalska, the museum`s spokeswoman.  – It was carried out as part of the process of institution organization, thus almost at the beginning of its activity. It is a great responsibility, as the system of a visual identification together with a recognizable logotype creates the brand from the very beginning. We believe that at the opening of the permanent exhibition, the Warsaw Ghetto Museum will already be an institution that is well known for its dynamic activity thanks to its recognizable, innovative identification, she insists.

The exhibition was to be held in the gallery of the National Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw. Due to the current pandemic, final works are shared in a safe digital space on the website of the museums: https://1943.pl/

The process of the visual identity competition of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum, thanks to the cooperation with the Polish Association of Applied Graphic Designers, has become something more than a task. It was an exciting adventure and lesson, which made us reflect on the mission of the museum, says Tomasz Kaliński, curator of the exhibition, head of the WGM Promotion Department.  – The exhibition presents all the works created for the competition, thanks to which one can see how the meaning of the museum’s mission has been deciphered and translated into graphic sense by sensitive and intelligent designers, adds the curator.

The winner is a Lithuanian DADADA Studio, established in 2006. It specialises in visual identity branding and design. Its achievements include the arrangement of an exhibition for the Lithuanian Maritime Museum in Klaipeda. The studio`s artists always strive to put wit and heart into the essence of what they do. Their idea is reduced to one sentence: “No one will be forgotten” – it is an invisible line between individual memories of the past and the collective memory of the present. It is the axis of graphic elements: colours, forms and letters, used in all their materials.

The other finalists are: The Little Greta studio – established in 2005 in Czechia. Today, it is an international agency with its offices in London and Prague. Its achievements include projects for the Museum of Literature and works for an exhibition dedicated to Tomáš Baťa – a Czech industrialist and visionary;

Francesco Ciampa – a freelance graphic designer living in Rome. He designs visualisations of brands and creates illustrations commenting on the surrounding reality. He emphasizes that he would like see the topics covered by him nowadays become a medium of history for the future generations;

a Polish studio The Codeine – founded in 2013 by the designer Grzegorz Łotysz and the programmers Szymon Karpiński and Karol Kasprzak. The studio gained recognition in the international market thanks to its projects using blockchain technology. Among other things, the studio has won the Polish Graphic Design Awards 2019;

a design and marketing agency Futu – operating for 15 years. It is responsible, among other things, for such projects as “Niepodległa” Logo and the Visual Identification System for the Museum of Polish History and the Museum of the Polish Army. Futu builds strategies, designs brands, creates their history and communication;

a Redkroft studio has been creating branding and visual identification since 2004. As many as 5 projects of the group won the 2012 Design for Business competition. They have recently created, among other things, the identification for the Cinematography Museum in Łódź.

The competition for the visual identification of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum, organised in cooperation with the Polish Association of Applied Graphic Designers, was announced in September 2019.The competition attracted interest from the very beginning – 216 designers from all around the world submitted their portfolios. 6 studios/designers – including three studios from Poland – were qualified for the second, paid stage.

The winning design by the Lithuanian DADADA Studio was chosen by an international Jury composed of: Małgorzata Naimska – vice-director of the Culture Dpt. of the City of Warsaw; Barbara Schabowska-Maszenda – director of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute; Philippe Boulakia, a lecturer from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem; Prof Sławomir Kosmynka from the Fine Arts Academy in Łódź and Albert Stankowski – the director of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum.

Exhibition curator: Tomasz Kaliński

Graphics and digital design: Andrzej Wąsik, Tadeusz Borowiec / http://andu.pl/

Cooperation: Maja Nowak, Kama Pawlicka, Miłka Skalska, Robert Gola, Anna Kilian

Photo: the WGM