Czech & Slovak Film Festival identity inspired by hand-painted Czech posters

Australian consultancy Sense designed the identity for this year’s Czech & Slovak film festival, which took place in Melbourne and Sydney, creating a look look inspired by the gorgeous hand-printed Czech film posters of the past. The festival was themed around the idea of “resistance”, as a nod to 2014 being the 25th anniversary of the non-violent “Velvet Revolution” in Czechoslovakia – a series of peaceful demonstrations against the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia that worked to end 41 years of Communist rule in the country.

Sense chose to emulate the look of the posters not just in the aesthetic but in the process too, using hand-painted lettering in blue and red to create the graphics for collateral such as business cards and stationery. This is used alongside a powerful image of a broken hammer, which Sense says is a “statue-like symbol of oppression – [which] represents the end of conflict and the birth of art.” The programme looked brilliant, too, featuring a retrospective of the work of Czech director and It’s Nice That favourite Jan Švankmajer, including showings of his terrifying, hilarious and utterly brilliant Little Otik.