Alevism is an universal and humanistic religion practiced by millions of people around the world. It is based in God as a central point of the believe and the trinity composed by Hakk, Mohammed and Ali. Their principles are tolerance, respect for any other believes, the encouragement of the multiculturalism, the equality between women and
men, avoiding any kind of violence, solidarity and a family centered point of view.
We were asked by the austrian alevi association (AABF) to help them move and build up their visual identity. Their main problem is that most of the Austrian people doesn’t even know about the existence of the religion (including ourselves before starting the project). The second problem is that there are people that consider them a part of Islam. They need to gain visibility and show how open and independent the religion is. In Austria there are around 60.000 alevi believers, most of them come originally from Turkey. Last year they got the official recognition as a religion from the austrian government.
The Alevism hase been persecuted and forbidden for centuries, considered by some orthodoxies heresy. Therefore the religion was practiced in secrecy, as a culture by word of mouth without the classic strong religious structure. They learned to avoid visibility. This lack of religious structure makes the association the center of the activity in Austria, not only in a religious way but also as a community and a support for the people (many of them migrant). Our main goal was to reinforce the identity and make it visible, showing a consistent and unique image.
Our first step was the naming, we looked for a obvious name that would communicate in the most direct way and in German (the official language of Austria) to non believers – Aleviten Österreich – (Alevi Austria) and could make an statement of unity and identification to the believers itself.
The lack of structure is also reflected in the symbolics of the religion. There is no main symbol as in other religions but more that 7 symbols that, most of the time are applied in combinations. From the very beginning we wanted to find an unique and iconic symbol that would work as a unambiguous and unequivocal representation of the religion. From the main 7 Symbols we dismissed the one shared with other religions, the ones that have another meaning for the people who are not familiar with Alevism and the ones that couldn’t work as an icon.
client
Aleviten Österreich
elements
naming
logo
business paper
business card
stamp
year
2013
team
creative director
Martina Pérez
Rodrigo Pérez
graphic design
Rodrigo Pérez
Aleviten Österreich
elements
naming
logo
business paper
business card
stamp
year
2013
team
creative director
Martina Pérez
Rodrigo Pérez
graphic design
Rodrigo Pérez
