BookForum was held  from October
6 to 9, 2022. But due to the full-scale invasion of Russia, organizers had
to change the event format. Speakers, dignitaries, and journalists were broadcast from the bomb shelter.
So instead of visiting live meetings,
a lot of people could join online worldwide broadcasts. In addition
to the new format, BookForum needed to create the brand identity
of the festival so that the identity would reflect the reality of the war
in Ukraine.

In accordance with this task, I did
a research of the views and opinions of the target audience (publishers, authors and book lovers) in social networks, and also decided to add
to the design connotations
to Ukrainian culture and the country's struggle for independence.

Lettering for the logo, with decorative elements that are traditional for the
Ukrainian font style, was developed based on 25 equal modules, symbolically including 24 regions
of Ukraine + Crimea in this concept.

I also developed a variant of the logo, where some letters seem to lose balance but at the same time
safely rest on others. That is how
I metaphorically tried to conveythe feeling of instability that is familiar
to every Ukrainian today. That
is a story about the search for the support we currently find in culture, particularly in books, texts, public conversations, and discussions.
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The font was made monospaced, paying tribute to the Ukrainian’ Samvydav’ era of the 60s. When authors did not have the opportunity to publish their works in their native language due to Soviet censorship, they printed them on their own. And then people secretly reprinted them on typewriters, where only such monospaced font was.

The functional elements of the identity are also built on the same modular principle as the font (a circle, books
on a shelf, an anti-tank hedgehog) which form a complete design system. The designers also visually quoted BookForum’s partner, the British literary festivalHay Festival.

Separately, I would also like
to elaborate on the graphic visualization of the anti-tank hedgehog. It is the main accent element that first catches the eye
of the new corporate identity of the literary festival. At the beginning
of the full-scale Russian aggression, people built and put that anti-tank hedgehogs on the roads to protect their cities and villages.
So now hedgehog symbolizes resistance a big, bold, and bright one. It is an important image that reminds us at what cost we can hold a literary festival in times of full-scale war.

The Roman numerals that form the number 29 (as this BookForum is the 29th) are also built according to the same corporate identity font system.

Gradient blue is the main color.
It represents the image of a clear sky, which is obscured by smoke (a gray texture on the identity) after yet another missile strike or coming from Ukrainian books burned by the occupiers. Yet, at the same time, this very blue carries a bit of sacredness, symbolizing heavenly light and a sense of cleansing from filth – read: from Russians on our lands. The textures co-exist together, but the blue is trying to break out of the smoky gray texture, so it dominates.

BookForum’s identity does not exist
in a vacuum but interacts with the world. It’s not just posters or social media visuals. It’s an authentic interaction, augmented reality,
if you will. On some mediums, for example, instead of a blue tone,
we integrate the real sky. Or we use tape on the windows in visualization, which, unfortunately, has already become a standard part of Ukrainian life. Every Ukrainian sealed his windows at home to protect them from breaking after the explosion. Even the trains and buses have their windows sealed with tape. Thus, with the help of visual language, we tried
to explain to the world community what and why is happening
in Ukraine now.