Month of Photography Asia is a renowned festival and platform to promote and celebrate the art of photography through the lenses of international and local photographers. The 2009 instalment will feature exhibitions by Steve McCurry (famed for his ‘Afghan girl’ picture), Françoise Huguier (who based herself in Singapore for 2 months to shoot a series on HDB living) as well as many other acclaimed photographers. As this is the 8th year of the festival, the organisers felt it was high time they re-imagined and rejuvenated its brand … and they approached Chemistry to take on the job.

The main challenge in creating a strong visual identity for a festival such as Month of Photography lies in shaping the hierarchy in which the many layers of information are presented. Is it about the ‘top of the bill’ photographer or is it about showing a multitude of visual works? Is it about the organiser or the venue – or is it about this year’s theme followed by the festival as a whole?

Designer Marcel Heijnen describes the start of the creative process, “After an open brainstorming session with the organising committee, we advised them to reserve the top level of all visual communication for the identity of the festival itself as its full name, rather than the abbreviated version: MOP, which was used in previous years. We felt there was good reason to be bold, confident and unapologetic about the identity”.

Chemistry created a new logo that is strong, simple and clear, that takes reference from a stack of photographic prints, with each word slightly blocking the one beneath. For the festival collaterals, the team chose to avoid using a large ‘hero’ photo on the cover, which would narrow the focus of the festival to just one photographer or exhibition. Instead, an abstract photographic image is used, its saffron colour providing an emotive link with this year’s theme, ‘Engaging Asia’.

Besides the hierarchical complexity, another challenge was to create synergy between the many different publicity materials, ensuring that the programme booklet, catalogue, website, banners and invitations all speak the same visual language.

"In avoiding the typical cliché of the perforated film roll, the idea of an asymmetric white border reminiscent of professional Polaroids, came to us. We executed this as a die-cut on the invites and as print on the programme booklet. It provides a playful yet binding element and helps connect the vastly varied photography work,” explains Marcel.

The end result is an identity that the clients felt was contemporary yet timeless, flexible yet strong. Because the festival changes its theme and content each year, the visual identity has to adapt to these modifications while maintaining a strong sense of continuity. Also, prioritising the visual messages helped the festival to consolidate its identity as a regional photography event.

“As a visual arts festival, it is very important for us to maintain a sense of aesthetics. After all, we are in the business of promoting visual culture, so our identity needed to reflect that. As the partners in Chemistry are themselves artists and photographers, they understood this immediately. Working with Chemistry has been a learning process not only about designing our visual identity but also about our festival as a whole … the process forced us to pause to reflect on what we have achieved and where we want to go in the future as a festival. With our brand new look, we have become more confident and bolder in our communication and we can’t thank Chemistry enough for that!"

- Shirlene Noordin, Month of Photography Asia’s Festival Director