RSA Fellows Festival 2024 required a splash screen for their Central England Regional event under the umbrella theme 'COURAGE'. The marketing team chose to show all of the concepts and have them on a loop between the speakers' talks. The wordmark design was influenced by a quote from Mark Twain, who observed that “Courage is resilience to fear”. This idea prompted an exploration of the symbolism of gritted teeth as a visual representation of courage.
As a response to this and delving into the intricate houndstooth pattern, glyphs spelling out the word ‘Courage’ were crafted. Variations in the design ranged from a subtle state of change (the letters emerging from their background) to a more forceful state (moving against the grain/status quo).
Additionally, a single ‘tooth’ from the pattern was incorporated into a formation resembling birds in flight, drawing inspiration from the captivating ‘Flight’ poster by E. McKnight Kauffer (circa 1963).
Upon closer examination of the letter configuration within COURAGE, the letters U R nestled in the middle came to the fore, subtly hinting at the notion that each individual has the capacity to embody courage within themselves.
