The jingling of keys and slogans such as “Our hands are empty”. This is how people most often remember the Velvet Revolution. We wanted to take a different approach and not limit ourselves to celebrating a single day, which was actually the culmination of years spent longing for freedom. Instead, we decided to focus on what 30 years of freedom has brought us – what is different today, even though we might not be aware of it. We act differently, think differently and speak differently. And the last of these can be demonstrated.
Bony and mánička. Words from another age
We opted to use forgotten words as a symbol of the celebrations of 30 years of freedom. Before 1989, words such as bony (currency vouchers), mánička (a long-haired male) and vekslák (someone who illegally trades in foreign currency) were terms used on a daily basis by the state apparatus, the media, and also by ordinary people. However, over the last 30 years, like totalitarianism, they have disappeared from our lives. Yet we shouldn’t forget that they used to be here, and so we have decided to remind people of them. It is only by knowing what a lack of freedom is like that we can really appreciate the freedom we enjoy today.
Words everywhere you look
We used only words for the whole of the visual campaign and took care to ensure that they were seen. On advertising boards everywhere in the city, in frames on trams and on posters in underpasses. Basically, everywhere that people go. We managed to appropriately link the words to invitations to a wide variety of events. Mánička urged people to go to a concert and bony encouraged them to see Havel’s play. A Glossary was also created, where people can still look up the meanings of totalitarian phrases to this day.
Playful retro style
For the campaign to be instantly eye-catching, it needed a facade that was half retro and half modern. We managed to achieve this with the font and tricolours we chose, although we went for more subtle pastel tones. Moreover, everything is brought together by the font overprint technique, which was widely used before the revolution.
