Design concept
Client: Alluvium
Principal type: Helvetica
Illustration: Adrian Fitzgerald
Illustration: Adrian Fitzgerald
Final identity
Principal type: Bleeding Cowboys
Illustration: Adrian Fitzgerald
Principal type: Bleeding Cowboys
Illustration: Adrian Fitzgerald
Principal type: Bleeding Cowboys
Photography: Julie-Maree Southen
Retouching: Adrian Fitzgerald
Retouching: Adrian Fitzgerald
BLOOD DIAMONDS
Diamonds are forever it is often said. But lives are not.
"We must spare people the ordeal of war, mutilations and death
for the sake of conflict diamonds."
Martin Chungong Ayafor, Chairman of the Sierra Leone Panel of Experts.
Being blind to the brutality of civil wars and genocidal dictatorships on the African continent that are partly funded by the mining and sale of diamonds is no longer something we can claim to be.
On July 19, 2000, the World Diamond Congress in Antwerp adopted a resolution to strengthen the diamond industry's ability to block sales of conflict diamonds, more commonly known and referred to as Blood Diamonds. These are diamonds that are mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, an invading army's war efforts, or a warlord's genocidal activities.
The resolution was later given approval by the UN on March 13, 2002, and in November, after two years of negotiation between governments, diamond producers, and Non-Government organizations, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS.) was created.
Although flawed and with key proponents such as Global Witness - the organization that initially reported on the link between diamonds on conflicts in Africa - abandoning the scheme, it is still the best system in terms of peace of mind when it comes to the certification of diamonds.
