The story of the Addu Cultural Centre

So what we’ve most recently been tasked with doing is to come up with a basic marketing communications package for the Addu Cultural Centre that’s being developed by the folks at South Solutions.

While the beneficiary is South Solutions, a pretty switch on group of individuals who we’re very excited about collaborating with, this project is funded under a grant by the Business Development Services Centre (BDSC), which is overseen by the Ministry of Economic Development.

You’ve already seen some of our work here. BDSC, along with South Solutions, had rightly identified some other basic communications requirements.

However, what we realised was that in order for us to start cracking on producing these items we needed to pull ourselves back just a little and create a brand - which we were excited to discover that everyone was onboard with.

So, first on the agenda was creating a brand for the Addu Cultural Centre. Something we felt we could not properly do without dropping by the site. So we packed our bags, along with a couple of cameras and other essential items and headed over to Addu City - more specifically the Hithadhoo region of Addu City, home of the Equatorial Convention Centre (ECC).

Once there we went over our approach with the South Solutions team in detail - explaining the need to create a brand for the Centre. And this is where we realised that we were more in synch than one could have hoped for!

South Solutions had already brainstormed a tagline. Which was;

I have a story to tell.

Given regional mythology, we felt that this was a perfect jumping off point.

We developed a copywriting approach focusing on enticing the traveller to visit the Centre with the promise of a great story - and it is a great story.

The main ‘changes’ we brought to the tagline was to add open quotes and  creating a sense of the ‘incomplete’;

“I have a story to tell…

So, you now have to visit the Centre to hear the story.

Then came the visual identity. We created a couple of concepts and after discussions with the South Solutions team, and BDSC, settled on an approach accentuating authenticity and heritage - with just a dash of mystique.

We created a logo in the impression of the imperial seals used by former Sultans of the Maldives.

Ornamentations, along with the royal names and decrees, were composed into octagon shaped seals and used in official documents, marked on important buildings, engraved on tombstones of royals, etc. – this illustrated the legitimacy and sovereignty of the monarch.

The scripts marked inside the logo reads “Addu Cultural Centre” in “Dhives Akuru” - an ancient writing script used in the Dhivehi language.

An interesting side note; while ‘modern’ Dhivehi is written from right to left, “Dhives Akuru” is rendered from left to right.

Having finalised these, one of our first focuses was on the signboard.

Working with sign-maker, and expert traditional carvings enthusiast, Itwo we created a ‘built sketch’ with stone and wood carvings. The concept was to weave together traditional hand crafted design elements into a collage clearly reflective of the Centre’s identity.

Once this was approved by South Solutions, Itwo put together a ‘first draft’- the stone carvings were done by Itwo and the wood carvings by Metal Signs with us, domus, providing design direction.

While most designs are pending approval, the copywriting for the project is now complete with copy translations for the brochures and posters done in three additional languages - while not ruling out minor modifications in the future.

So, check back with us soon to see where we’re headed with brochures, posters, etc.