A key inspiration for reSITE Visual Identity 2015 was a Czech born graphic designer Ladislav Sutnar (born 1897, Plzen), who is a pioneer in the areas of information, architecture and design. Sutnar’s modernist and disciplined layouts, minimal use of color and his aim to present complex (as well as sometimes outright boring) data while staying playful is very close to my heart. The subject of data, its presentation to the public, accessibility and how it changes our cities was one of the main topics of the reSITE conference in 2015. Like Suntar, reSITE strives to present complex issues (and no issue is simple where you need to work with communities, or need to hear and respond to the many voices of a city) in a way that is both accessible and beautiful Ladislav Sutnar’s professional life included studying both architecture and painting. He taught at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (UMPRUM). In 1939 Sutnar settled in NYC. A city crucial to reSITE history as well: Martin Barry, came to Prague in 2011 and founded reSITE. An event that would later connect many other cities and many other people and complex issues and solutions.
Amongst many publications, catalogues, identities and other projects conceived by Sutnar one that got my attention was “Build The Town” – a building block toy set created in 1942. However, the set was never mass produced although sketches and a prototype still exist. It is a simple geometrical shapes of the blocks, allowing the user to assemble them in many a set up. A set of shapes that could be not just a house, a factory, a car... But a face, a voice, a solution. A shared city where we are all part of one.
PS: Each year reSITE has a difference theme defined by the program team. This theme then gets to headstart the visual identity research. Theme for 2015 was "Shared cities". My personal goal was to arm a 65+ people team with an identity they can not just share across departments and disciplines but also own and play with. Thus when I first saw Sutnar's building blocks I wanted to scream from happiness - this is what I need. I need my team to play the city game with me, to play the visual identity. This identity also allowed us to create a distinctive voice and get away from the expectation of being "yet another architecture B2B conference". We were never B2B and the audience and speakers were so diverse that I had to design something that could convey this. I hope I have succeeded to some extent.
reSITE
reSITE is a 650+ conference and festival founded by Martin Barry (NYC) and co-organized with the support of the city of Prague and Europe Commission for Culture.
Year: 2015 (creative director 2011-2016)
Client: reSITE Conference & Festival, City of Prague, PENTA
Role: Creative direction and internal production (design director), management of vendors responsible for executing designs into 3D, video, opening video art direction, environmental design, presentation for stage projection, scenography of the event, ad campaign, photography and video team management.
Junior Designer: Kararina Jancovicova.
Photos courtesy of Dorota Spinkova Velek.
