In 2016, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the two countries decided to set on the Ukrainian-German Year of Languages. The purpose was to deepen the mutual trust and friendship between the countries and to strengthen and develop the cooperation in the cultural and educational spheres.
A client came to us with a task to create an identity that would be used in fifty events all over Ukraine to celebrate the languages, cultures, and literatures. We had to combine musical group tours, author’s readings, summer camps for schoolchildren, professional meetings, youth exchange projects, and exhibitions with an easy-to-use visual style.
A twelve-pointed star became the logo of the Ukrainian-German Year of Languages. It is multilayered and simple at the same time. The star is based on the combination of colors of Ukrainian and German flags. The typeface became the second most important element of the style. It forms the outline of a title, slogan, headings, and the main text body. We’ve developed a system for accent arrangement and decoration of small text blocks—three right arrowheads: >>>. The font type also provides the language duplication with the parallel use of Ukrainian and German titles. We’ve created additional style elements with a graphic interpretation of the star logo. Its dynamism and variability allow creating compositions for different communication formats.
