Cinematic scenes: Pol Solsona Studio’s identity for Cinemaissí reflects the festival’s vibrancy

Exhibiting and celebrating cinema from Latin America, Helsinki-based film festival Cinemaissí champions the underrepresented voices of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries; bringing to attention their filmmaking through screenings, panels, events and talks. Turning to Pol Solsona Studio for an identity to mirror the festival’s vibrant output, the Barcelona-based creative practice took the opportunity to use the visual languages associated with the industry and somewhat subvert their usage. As a result, the brand is cinematic and familiar, with recognisable graphic tropes, sizes and formats being implemented in a powerful, editorial display of type and contrast.

“One of the client’s aims was to elevate the festival’s image and create a more ‘premium’ look,” Solsona tells us, “to achieve this, we decided to incorporate gold as one of the key colours in the festival’s identity,” believing gold to not only embody a sense of prestige but also firmly establish a link with “traditional laurel wreaths” typically associated with movie accomplishments.

“Considering the festival’s unique context,” Solsona adds, recalling its Finnish locale and the atmospheric contrast the city has with vibrant Latin American cinema, “we recognised the need for playful and vivid contrasts,” subsequently introducing a bright, vivid pink to provoke “a straightforward visual punch” to the brand’s output. “Additionally, we introduced a third colour to the palette,” he remarks, manifesting in a light grey hue. “This choice was made to provide a sense of balance and tranquillity, helping to counterbalance the vibrancy of the other colours and create a harmonious overall composition.”

With Cinemaissí’s interplay of contrary colours cementing the basis of the brand, Solsona turned to Schick Toikka’s Lateral as one of the primary typefaces, harnessing its movie-star quality and practical condensed construction to playfully present all the event’s information as clearly as possible. He also opted for Playtype’s Berlingske Serif for the logomark, explaining, “we envision the logo to resemble a movie title on a movie poster,” whilst providing a distinctive ownable mark to last for years to come. “The concept behind the logo is to allow for variations in future festival editions,” Solsona concludes, “while maintaining the Lateral typeface and its treatment as the primary key element of the festival’s identity.”

Pol Solsona Studio

Cinemaissí