Planet Lem Visual Identity

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Visual Identity for the PLANET LEM.
A Center for Literature and Language

The Planeta Lem is a new center for literature and language that will be established in Krakow in the upcoming years. The Center will be dedicated to the work of Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem – creator of Solaris. In his books, the writer explores philosophical topics, speculating on technology, the nature of intelligence and life on other planets. With the help of the writer's timeless diagnoses, contemporary scientific reflection on language and communication, Planet Lem will contribute to building an open and conscious society in the changing world.

In its program, the center wants to respond to the constantly evolving world; this includes trends in communication, literature and language, and new technologies. Therefore, Gabriela Baka with Łukasz Podolak have created a variable and animated identification that reacts together with the center to the current problems. The design assumption was to create a tool that would allow Center to co-create the identification, and thus it would never lose its freshness or topicality.

Cross the boundaries of what is known

This sentence led the design process towards creating a narrative identity that is constantly evolving. The aim was to take the viewer, like Lem in his books, on journeys through unknown dimensions and hitherto undiscovered worlds.

Planet Lem's identification consists of a logo, a grid system, and abstract visualizations of exceeded dimensions, as well as a fleeting raster.

Dimensions

Visualizations of the dimensions are visions of what is undiscovered but also, afterimages of what is already known to us. They are mysterious, ambiguous, open, and changeable. There is an infinite number of dimensions, and each one of them has its own expression. Their complexity can stimulate the imagination in different ways.

Inside them, the familiar elements look and behave differently than our intuition tells us. They are in motion, they operate at different times, recreating and changing themselves all the time.

As our imagination and interpretation of the universe have no limits the identification can have an infinite number of dimensions (visuals outputs). Developed tools for identity allow us to create and visualize new worlds endlessly.

Logo

The planet is in constant motion; a glimpse of this movement was captured in the logo. The logo exists in dimensions in two places simultaneously; in real and known to us and unknown, undefined, mysterious.

The logo is available in two versions for printing as a rasterized form and digital as a gradient. Such a distinction allowed to use the possibilities of a given medium - and despite a different form of the sign, the final reception would be the same.

System

The modular grid combined with geometric typography forms a system that is the base for more organic and free visuals. The system adapts to the format and scales with it, which allows us to accommodate various information, photos, videos, and mysterious dimensions.

The contrasting identification is alive and set in motion by animations. Communication materials reflect this feeling, giving the impression that something is being created, evolved. Thus, it invites you to discover the visual world of Planet Lem in various media.
Thanks to its openness, the new identification can develop along with the needs and program of the Center – always staying fresh and up-to-date.

The project is the winner of the competition announced by the Krakow Festival Office (KBF). After the competition it was adopted and implemented.