The assignment was to make a identity for the graduates of the class of 2010 at St. Joost Art Academy. And essentially: come up with something that captures the diversity of the graduates in one concept and visual representation.
My starting point was the mixing of departments within the school. A graphic designer also uses photography and illustration. An animator uses sculpting, and so on. The form where mixing and graduating came together was a rough diamond for me. I see an artist's talent as something precious, this talent is sculpted and developed at the art academy. Every student is a 'diamond in the rough' when starting their quest for authenticity. Graduation is a moment to shine for each student, and to show their unique mix of skills and disciplines.
I made a three-dimensional asymmetrical gemstone with eight facets. One facet for every department, each with their own color. When light hits the gemstone, the different colors of light will mix, as do the students disciplines while at work.
I started with a closed version of the rough gem, but a wireframe version of it turned out to be the most workable. And from this shape I started to create all of the elements that I knew I would need. I knew I needed typography, and that the visuals should eventually presented on a series of posters.
For the main poster I beamed out white text, because when different colors of light mix, it becomes white. For every department I made a poster with text in the color of the department. The gemstone is positioned differently on every poster, because of the threedimensional character of the gem.
