The Academy of Jewish Thought and Learning hosts a series of events celebrating the Jewish heritage of constructive debate, “where words are not weapons to discredit rivals, but candles shedding light in the search for better answers.”

These discussions aim to cover a range of challenging contemporary issues and discuss them in a framework of passion, mutual respect and integrity.

The first stage of this project was the development of an identity for the Debate Space series, comprising a logo, tagline, and a visual scheme incorporating these elements with a primary image that will change with each event.

 

Functionally, the logo needed to be simple, bold and colour-neutral (or colour-agnostic) so that it would render well over a wide range of colours and textures. Conceptually, it should represent the idea of debate as dialogue and a meeting of minds.

The first event was a discussion with the Chief Rabbi of South Africa on intermarriage in Judaism, and the challenge faced by South African Jews in preserving their Jewish identity while embracing the diversity of a multi-cultural society — how much should they blend in, and how much should they stand out?

The brochure promoting the event continues the theme of interactivity and unusual folds already established in previous projects for the Academy. In this case, the reader is invited to literally see both sides of the picture.

The split image motif was carried through to all materials, including press advertisements, posters, website and email newsletters, with the seemingly broken layout encouraging a second look.