By: Ekrem Dupanović
On September 14 and 15, Bihać (Bosnia and Herzegovina) will host the Creative Republic – a regional conference on creative communication. The conference is held in the Museum of AVNOJ and brings together experts from various fields of visual communication and advertising. The name of the conference is referring to the Bihać Republic, which was the first free territory in the occupied Yugoslavia, and Bihać was the capital and the venue for the first AVNOJ session.
Within the Creative Republic of Croatia, an exhibition of Studio Mireldy will be organized, where Imelda Ramović will present the creative opus of the studio. Within the exhibition, Imelda’s latest independent work will also be presented: the book “A Monument to Monuments”.
Media Marketing: Two years ago you were in Bihać, where you participated in the Conference part of the Creative Republic. Now you are returning, why? You liked it the first time, you liked the atmosphere, or are you seeking some new challenge…?
Imelda Ramović: I have implemented several projects in the meantime that have intrigued the organizers of this conference, so they’ve invited me for the second time to be part of the festival. :)
I’m glad that they like what Mireldy studio is doing, and I believe I will have the opportunity to hear some interesting lectures, just like two years ago!
Two years ago visitors to the festival had the chance to see presentation of a project (SOS by Đurđa Prettyface), as an example of collaboration between small entrepreneurs and a design studio. This year they will have the chance to find out more about the Mireldy Studio, how Mirel Hadžijusufović and I started our collaboration, what kid of projects we worked on, and what we’ve learned from all that. And they’ll have the chance to see an exhibition of posters “Monument to Monuments”.
Media Marketing: So You’re returning to Bihać with your own exhibition. What will you exhibit? Will it be an overview of your rich creative work, or a thematic exhibition?
Imelda Ramović: The exhibition is about my recent project “A Monument to Monuments”.
In need of preserving memories of our heritage in the form of monuments, I designed the project “A Monument to Monuments” for which I created a series of posters with illustrations of the monuments of the revolution, and a book that at this stage treats twenty monuments with the intent to eventually cover the entire range of monuments. In addition to preserving the memory of these monuments, the idea of the project was to give them a new-yet-old value; to remind that these works represent some of the most impressive monumental modernist sculptures of their time.
Media Marketing: I’ve been following your work in design since you began. I know you sometimes changed styles, design subjects and so on. In what “phase” are you now?
Imelda Ramović: Both individually, and as a team, we have gone through various development phases, which is normal, we were maturing and as we grew were interested in different things. But what I see as a constant when I look at my portfolio (which includes works 15 years into the past) is that we’ve addressed each task as a new challenge and that it was always important that everything we do has a clear idea and a defined concept, because that’s the only possible way to maintain quality. And after so much time and different projects, I still have the same approach to everything I do. I simply care about what I do and I don’t know how to work differently.
Media Marketing: Is there a client that got really etched in your memory?
Imelda Ramović: In various periods there were some really interesting experiences with clients. As the time passed by, collaborations and mutual understanding became much better.
So, over the last few years, most of the clients remained in good memory because of that good relationship, and ultimately because of the mutual satisfaction with the results.
Media Marketing: What makes you especially happy in your work… and what makes you happy in life?
Imelda Ramović: The thing that makes me particularly happy in business is when several things fit in perfectly – an interesting brief, good relationship with a client based on mutual trust, and production capabilities. I thrive in the process of creating, from the very idea to its execution.
As for life, a lot of things make me happy, and specially important is that I’m surrounded with good and dear people, with whom I can spend quality time, and then everything else just falls in place.
Media Marketing: Could you tell us more about the idea behind the new visual identity of the Creative Republic you created this year?
Imelda Ramović: Nino Kasupović gave me the task to shape the visual identity of this year’s festival so that it makes a conceptual or visual link with the host city (symbols of the city) while at the same time promoting the idea of the Creative Republic as a meeting place for creators from across the region.
In this context, Studio Mireldy created a coat of arms of the Creative Republic, which is inspired by the historic symbols of the city of Bihać . These symbols are transformed into a creative game and vision of the free Creative Republic. The choice of typography and graphical treatment of elements lean on the aesthetics of the coats of arms of the former Yugoslav republics to make a visual link with the name of the festival as well as the venue (Museum of AVNOJ).
