Mekong Culture WELL
Project Director: Amanda Flaim
The Mekong River is a home to a variety of flora and fauna. Over 60 million people rely on the Mekong and its resources in countries like Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. However, the livelihoods and ecologies are being impacted by global warming, dams and industrialization.
More information about this project can be found here.
When I came aboard this project, creating a visual identity that showcases the mission statement and people was, at first, difficult to imagine. The countries a part of this project have similar but different histories and cultures that challenged me to find a design that was appropriate and clear to everyone involved.
During the idealization and sketching stage, many of my ideas consisted of curved forms that were meant to represent community and unity.
Although we have different backgrounds and histories, our shared goal is protecting the Mekong River and promoting cultural understanding.
As the design became more developed, the visual elements that I decided to include in the logo went beyond representing community and started to encompassed the deeper relationship between the river and ecosystem.
The Mekong Culture WELL stands for Water, Ecology, Land, Livelihoods. These vital terms served as a starting point for me to imagine visual elements that could represent the importance of sustaining the Mekong River.
Mekong Catfish | The catfish is native to the Mekong basin and is the largest freshwater fish, but the species is considered endangered due to overfishing and habitat loss.
Mekong River | The river itself are repeating lines and visually acts as an extension of the catfish's tail and boat for the fisher.
Rice Plant | This grain is an essential source of food for over half of the world and nearly the entirely of Asia. In many cultures, it symbolizes fertility, abundance, and good health. Vietnam's largest rice-producing region is also along the Mekong delta, where the river flows into the South China Sea.
Fisher | The last visual element of this design is a fisher to represents the livelihoods dependent on the Mekong River.
In most cases, we associate the color blue to bodies of water. However, the Mekong River is an important source of moving sediments downwards to the the delta, creating more land and replenishing soil to Cambodia and Vietnam. With the rise of dams and industrialization along the river, less sediments are being allowed to flow downwards.
While incorporating blue would make sense for project focused on environmental sustainability, I ultimately decided to utilized earth tone colors.