STAGE21

A visual identity project with Melina Papadioti.

STAGE21 emerges from a multitude of particles and/or cubes (shows, people, institutions, media and other “spectacular” contemporary events), consisting of a clear typographic upper section and a obscure, lower section. It can be said that it is beyond doubt that contemporary society is the most visible and visual of all time.

Vilém Flusser refers to both the visible and the visual; the “visible” in reference to that even a fruit seller in New Delhi is able to see what is happening on a live screen of a gay parade in Paris. And “visual” in the sense that the gay parade’s communication strategy is potentially reaching a mass audience with the use of branding, broadcasting, event promotion, PR, etc. Is this unprecedented visuality and visibility of our moden world the result of a struggle for power? A ‘Society of the Spectacle’ as stated by Guy Debord?

STAGE21 was a second year Graphic Design exhibition answering the questions thereof. Consisting of various collaborative projects, encompassing and dealing with varied perspectives of what a ‘spectacle’ in the 21st century could be. Our event directly reffered to the ‘Society of the Spectacle’, where economic and societal interactions are depicted to be a “staged” spectacle that hides (or harms) real life and human values. Hence, we are live on a stage where we are constantly being faced with a
“back-staged” truth.