Singapore Biennale: 'Natasha'
Branding Concept
A task was assigned to come up with the branding for Singapore's 2023 Biennale, such as the typography and the visuals to be displayed. The students were asked to interpret the prompt in their own ways, and to create visuals representing the personal interpretations. Below is the prompt for the task:
A curious event unfolds when a name is given. Everything might seem the same, yet what it was is now different. A place transforms into home. A figure becomes familiar. The formless finds shape. It’s only a name, but with it a world comes into being. As it is spoken, it forges relations with what is around.
We were encouraged to explore other media forms to approach this project instead of just stationery posters, thus the final being a gif poster. A minimalist style was implemented to preserve the mystery and ambiguity of the biennale’s theme, with the use of a sans serif font and a moving abstract shape to be the main visual.
My general interpretation ties to the concept of the power of names in meaning-giving, and how giving a name to something no matter how small or meager suggests acknowledgement and gives the object or living being an identity or meaning. If something or someone is given a name, it signifies that the person doing the name giving is taking the time and effort to acknowledge that things exist within their life and put meaning to it so they can better understand that object/person within their own minds. I think the idea I had in mind for this was the whole “something is only significant when given meaning/identity” aspect. The N’s in the logos are all made out of abstract shapes with no meanings, but only look like an N due to the identity that is given by us.
