In July, I participated in a design competition for a logo commemorating the 50^th anniversary of anti-communist student Sergio Ramelli’s death.

The requirements for the design were the following:

• usable on letterhead, posters, billboards, panels, and other formats;
• adaptable to social media profile pictures (FB, Insta, X, Telegram, WhatsApp, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn);
• can be turned into a banner for social media (FB, YouTube, LinkedIn) and the home page of the official website sergioramelli.it

Process

I started with simple, text-based banners:

Then I experimented with the pictures provided by the competition’s organiser:

What if I combine the number 50 with his picture?

The number 50 looks like goggles when in black-and-white. I’ll try to change that.

Turned the thing into a banner:

Changed the typeface:

And once more. Nah, I can’t do much to stop the overlaid 50 from looking like goggles:

I’ll make it simpler:

The final result, including the various graphics in their natural surroundings:

Result

I did not win. Another good design did:

I will note that it has an issue which I was careful to avoid in mine: slapping “1975–2025” without context makes it seem like the guy was born in 1975 and is about to have a birthday anniversary.