Polish-Russian Youth Exchange

About the client:

The Centre for Polish-Russian Dialogue and Understanding is a state legal person supervised by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. Our mission is to initiate and support projects undertaken in Poland and the Russian Federation and dedicated to improving dialogue and understanding between the two countries.

One of the Centre's undertakings is the Polish-Russian Youth Exchange - a grant program which aims to fund projects that “should stress on getting to know different social and cultural realities of both countries, but mainly on the active participation of young people.”

Problem
Considering the difficult political relationship between Poland and Russia I wanted to create a logo that is friendly and approachable. On the other hand, it had to look professional enough to be taken seriously as a grant program.

Solution
The concept I came up with is a logo that symbolizes the connection between the nations. Both nations can be represented by characteristic animals: Russians by a bear and Poles by a stork. Both animals share one eye - as a symbol of commonality. Both of them look forward, together, into the future. The colour palette is inspired by the national colours of both countries.

All the elements of the logo are proportional. A square grid serves as a base in which all the elements are accurately defined.

The supplementing typography, at the very least, had to support cyrylic and polish alphabets. Which even nowadays is not a given. I chose TT Rounds Condensed, which corresponds nicely to the friendly nature of the mark.

Printed materials