The town of La Tirana is located in the commune of Pozo Almonte in the I Region of Tarapacá, Chile. It is located in the middle of the Pampa del Tamarugal, about 80 kms from the city of Iquique. During the year the town is home to a small number of inhabitants, which changes radically during the week of celebrations of the Virgen del Carmen de La Tirana, each 16 of July. This religious festivity is one of the most important in the northern part of the country. Of colonial origins, the festivity has strong Andean influences.
According to tradition, the festival has its origin in a legend dating back to 1535, when Diego de Almagro left Cuzco to conquer Chile, accompanied by an Inca prince, the High Priest of the Sun, and his young daughter Ñusta Huillac, in order to appease a possible indigenous uprising.
After her father was betrayed and murdered, Ñusta fled with some of her servants, hiding in the tamarugo forest of the pampas. There she became a fearsome military chief, becoming known as La Tirana del Tamarugal. But the day came when her servants brought before the young woman a foreigner of Portuguese origin named Vasco de Almeida, who had entered the pampa in search of the Mina del Sol (Sun's mine). Deeply in love, La Tirana could not condemn him to death. She wanted to bring him closer to her beliefs, but it was him who ended up converting her to Christianity, baptizing her as Mary. Therefore, after arousing the wrath of her warriors, the lovers were killed by a rain of arrows.
The branding of this festival rescues the culture of the Chilean pampas. Through the colors and symbols used, we wanted to give a new image to this festival that attracts thousands of tourists every year.
The pattern has been constructed from the illustrated characterization of the masks used during the festival. From these masks we have generated our mascot and from its head, a system of nine squares containing fragments of it.
Throughout our project, we have used the Founders Grotesk family font.
