SEMINCI unveils its new visual style, updating its iconic lips and reinforcing its acronym as an international brand

The new image was created by PobrelaVaca Studio, the winner of the contest held to which three companies from Castilla y León were invited.

The Valladolid International Film Festival implements its new visual identity aiming to upgrade its trademark and improve its visibility, keeping the characteristic lips and the acronym SEMINCI that, since 1984, have been an essential part of the festival’s image. This new image comes from the design and graphic creativity agency PobrelaVaca Studio, based in Zaratán (Valladolid) founded by Ana María Hernández and Félix Rodríguez (Mr. Zé).

The celluloid kiss, a pop aesthetic poster designed by painter Manuel Sierra in 1984, commissioned by director Fernando Lara, represented a radical change in the festival’s image at the time, breaking with its conservative image. Thus, both the icon of the lips and the acronym SEMINCI form a consolidated brand with a solid value due to time and its link to the festival and the city, hence the renewal process has been based on improving the identity, not changing it.

Even though the branding was reviewed in 2015, the image needed to be updated after 40 years of existence, so the current management of the festival launched a selection process through a competition by invitation to which three companies from Castilla y León were invited to participate. The winning proposal, made by PobrelaVaca Studio, belonging to the DIME Association, Design of the Meseta, also features the official image of the upcoming 69th edition as part of the presentation strategy of the new identity, due to the fact that the usual poster contest open to the public has not been held since 2009.

PobrelaVaca Studio’s proposal for SEMINCI’s new visual identity is based on the concepts of simplicity, modernization and versatility and is based on two pillars. The first one being the respect for the former image and its meaning, the symbol of the kiss to cinema that Manolo Sierra made 40 years ago which has been a reference in the minds and hearts of Valladolid, a symbol without which it would be difficult to understand the meaning of SEMINCI itself. That kiss is now reinforced with an identity adapted to the times and formats, to the digital era and to the new forms of communication.

The second pillar is to dignify the graphic design process and reinforce SEMINCI as a consolidated brand, challenging us to carry out a great creative development leaving nothing to chance and reinforcing elements such as typography. To this end, we have created our own typography -SEMINCI Sans-, twinned the Festival’s laurels, formed by two branches of five leaves, with the five wavy gyres that occupy the center of the city’s emblem, and opted for an international nomenclature that combines the Spanish and English languages.

This identity is, according to Ana Maria Hernandez and Felix Rodriguez, directors of PobrelaVaca Studio, “clear, legible, current, simple in form and of great emotional and visual value” and, starting today, will be included in all the Festival’s visual communications to be gradually implemented in all the Festival’s elements and applications, until completely replacing the previous one in the more than 700 different items and elements that compose it: headings, laurels, SEMINCI Space, SEMINCI Channel and the different awards that make up the festival.

This new identity, created in Valladolid, by professionals from Valladolid with more than 20 years of experience, and for the city of Valladolid but open to the world, “aims to be well received by those who love cinema, those who stroll through our streets during the festival coming from all corners of the world and those who approach the world of design” noted the authors, whose work has been carried out “with the complicity of the festival team, which also acknowledges SEMINCI and its entire team of professionals”.