Another favourite project of mine because I lived and breathed every concept. The visual direction and even research and writing were all my ideas with total execution.
The Big Trip is an anthropological research based endeavour, where we are exploring ancient art, ideas, indigenous cultures, beliefs and practices to see if there are ways we can contribute to a global reset. This work is ongoing.
I spent a few months researching and finding a narrative for the identity.
For the logo I used symbolic iconography. Each letter has a narrative as well as collectively. The symbols explain different channels of our project. Navigation, story telling, sound, the human condition, and art with a narrative. The main colours represent nature: earth, rock, sky blue and sand.
I also designed the visual aesthetic, stamps, bag, leaflets, skins for the website, photography, illustration and initial social media posts up to the launch. I then gave a live presentation to introduce the project which you can see via instagram, copy below.
We have since done another exhibition at Think and Tink gallery where I designed content for that and also created an initial 3D mock-up, in progress, of a proposal for another show later next year.
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My Presentation Content:
My search for our visual language ignited in the symbols found on cave walls. Art is cultural. It is a language and a recording. An expression of our world or a story communicating a message.
For this project, the most interesting discovery for me was the spiral petroglyph. It is a symbol that has been found on many rocks dating back to the Ice Age.
There are 32 symbols *see booklet, in total like this, collected from caves across a 30,000-year time span.
This suggests it could be the first language ever created. And also shows a much early evolution in human cognition that had previously been recorded.
The map in the booklet, shows the location of where the symbols were discovered. The spiral became the most well travelled, stretching across the continents of Europe to China and Australia.
Although all their meanings are still relatively obscure, the spiral is said to mean the constant motion of the universe. Pattern of life.
I think this could also relate to time, for with many indigenous beliefs, time is not linear it is cyclical.
So it is not in a straight line with an end, it is circular. Time never stops, it is always in motion.
But what can we learn from a symbol in the bigger picture? Well they can start to build a image of an entire culture.
To us, these wavy lines universally represent water as an accessible compound. Available in any household
But for the Native Australians to use an example, it can mean lightning, drinkable flowing water, smoke or bush fire depending on area. So in this very basic example, you can start to see how a sign could begin to explain a culture, simply by understanding the environment.
And this is also what visual communication should try to explain in its essence.
For the big trip logo, the letters represent different areas of our research. Navigation, time, sound, nature and life. And together with the colours, it is intended to communicate curiosity, compassion with a love of the natural world around us.
The project was funded by Asian Cultural council and British Council
Live presentation link, skip 15mins in to start: fb.watch/jKrE5wEZIF/
