Chornobyl Exclusion Zone gets official brand and logo

As an Ukrinform correspondent reports, the brand was presented with the participation of Deputy Chairman of the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management Maksym Shevchuk, First Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Bohdan Borukhovsky and Chairwoman of the State Agency for Tourism Development Maryana Oleskiv in Kyiv on February 19.

“The Chornobyl zone is a unique phenomenon on our planet and we need to slightly change the basic narratives used when mentioning it. Yes, it is an exclusion zone. However, it is a development zone. A zone of preservation and memory, but a zone of future as well,” Borukhovsky said during the presentation.

The logo, developed by the Banda Agency with the support of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management and the State Agency for Tourism Development, is based on the shape of the reactor surface from which it all began.

This is the starting point for the logo as if it was the logo of Chornobyl ’86. With every passing year, the image changes and gradually disappears. The end point of the logo's existence is 2064 when the Chornobyl nuclear power plant will be completely decommissioned.

This event closes the present cycle of the Zone's history and opens space for the new, including other visual solutions.

The new visual system, changing every year, makes it possible to combine the past and the future in one space, thus reminding of the influence of the past on the present. Therefore, while transforming Chornobyl, it is also important to strengthen communication and change the visual perception of the Exclusion Zone, the presentation participants noted.

"That's why the brand creation project was launched. Banda Agency has done a lot of work with both Ukrainian and foreign focus groups of different ages and genders. They created a portrait of a typical Exclusion Zone visitor and developed a strategy and a brand book on its basis. Importantly, this work was done for free of charge," Shevchuk said.

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