Vuoden Huiput Champions

This brand identity was created for the Vuoden Huiput 2015, a competition and festival in Finland, which has been organised since 1980 by Grafia, the Finnish association of visual communication designers. The objective of this annual event is to raise the quality of design, to strengthen creativity and originality, and to promote the designers’ expertise. Under the motto “Design to celebrate champions”, the identity design strives towards lending the event a new sense of distinction and aesthetic. The identity thus focuses on John Sullivan, a bare-knuckle boxing champion from the 19th century. The aim is to convey the message that unshakable self-confidence can surely lead to victory, as was the case with Sullivan who fought without boxing gloves. In analogy to this, the competition defines itself as a call to designers to unconditionally believe in themselves and their work. Not entirely devoid of humour, this interpretation of the competition theme was adapted across various channels, including printed materials, editorial, online content and event materials.