RUSSIA, ARKHANGELSK OBLAST
Solvychegodsk brand

The salternative town that has some questions to ask

Solvychegodsk is that hidden piece of salt you would never forget. It is located among the woods to the southeast of vast Arkhangelsk oblast, just by the Vychegda river, a bit to the east from Kotlas. Little people have heard of its existence. That is expected, as there are even less population living in it: barely makes it to 2K. Such inpopularity has paid off in keeping town out of urban impact: almost no graphical garbage outdoors, brilliant safety of architecture, that made its way since the mighty and well-known dynasty of Stroganovs, merchants and start-upers of their time with a salt making empire. The sudden visit of this town during the field research of Severnoe Trekhrechie brand, has made a head blown effect on our team.

Client: Ministry of Culture of Arkhangelsk Oblast

Work: research, branding, guidelines, design, maps

2020 … 2022
Solvychegodsk is historically accurate even now
Testing (salty) waters
Svetlana Zenovskaya, the vice minister of culture of Arkhangelsk Oblast, adviced us to have a look at the town just to be notified of its existence and those mesmerizing architecture, almost lied forgotten inside northern fogs on the other side of the Vychegda river in 2017. That time, there has been neither enquiry for brand, nor budgets.
I immediately felt in love with this hidden piece of salt. Later on, we've been visiting it almost every year, speaking and sharing our thoughts on the perspective of branding. There were still no budgets, but interest had been raising and tourist projects were established. We have witnessed how town and its community had been slowly changing and willing to create brand with us and be more open to the public and tourists.
Natalia Makovsky
BRAND STRATEGIST
Photos of us visiting Solvychegodsk from 2017 till 2021
As most of residents like to say, time flows slower in Solvychegodsk. We can confirm. It took around three years for the town community since our first visit in 2017 here to be more or less ready for the changes to be launched in 2020. The catalyst of the changes became the forthcoming one-hundred anniversary of the soviet historical resort, situated in town. This made the governor team pay attention to the town and finding budgets for the upcoming changes.
Igor Makovsky
ART DIRECTOR, DESIGNER
Research for some salt
The work began in 2020, during the covid epidemy, if you still remember it. At that time, you couldn't simply get somewhere and ask residents to gather together. While experiencing lack of personal communication, we've launched an online survey and a website.
Landing page telling about the further project and the following-up survey about Solvychegodsk identity.
Administration and some local institutions shared a link on the form in their social media. We've gathered enough replies and sorted them among 4 topics.
  • Art & history

    1. Art, healing and northern beauty
    2. Strong-spirited people with great artistic taste, patriots of their small homeland
    3. Mastery on the edge of art
    4. Art with the taste of salt
    5. Historical resort
  • Time & mystery

    1. Town of the lost time
    2. Place for mind peace
    3. If the town will be easily accessble — it will loose its mystery
    4. Town that lives out of time
    5. Time has stopped here
    6. Place of hidden time
  • Men & spirit

    1. Patriarchy town
    2. Home of strong-minded people
    3. Town with Stroganov spirit
    4. Masculine town
    5. The town of the strong entrepreneurial spirit
    6. Chamber town with austerity spirit
    7. Town of laconic northern architecture and strong spirit
  • Literature & salt

    1. Historical salt
    2. Full of salt, stories and legends
    3. Salt of wisdom wrote by Kozma Prutkov
    4. Salt of the Russian North
    5. Crystals of the historical town
    6. Soul and salt
Crystal essence
It was clear for everybody that the unifying symbol of the town should be salt. Obviously, there are reasons for it:
  • Historical

    Stroganov's great empire was built on selling salt that had been of a great value back then.
  • Verbal

    Solvychegodsk has a word "Salt" in it and it would be silly not to use this. The second part of word is Vychegodsk, came from the name of the nearby river, Vychegda.
  • Gastronomical

    People still trying to keep the traditions of making salt and using it in food. There is only lack of package.
  • Visual

    Town architecture is mostly built with white stones and, thus, resembe salt colors.
In Russia, word "salt" stands for the most valued essence of anything. It makes up the vividness and poignancy of a speech, a story, a thought. That's based on the history, where salt was a pricey product, because of its production. And its production was in Solvychegodsk. So, no question asked, salt be it.
Igor Makovsky
ART DIRECTOR, DESIGNER
But you can't just state something, when it comes to working with such deep and philosophical town like Solvychegodsk. "Town of salt", — sounds kinda boring for us. There had to be a salt hidden inside, because, remember, there had been a lot of requests telling on how hidden this town actually is. Out of time, out of people attention, out of ordinary. It should lean towards intellectual tourism, solo tourism for those who made it there.
That final touch that made us find the perfect slogan for Solvychegodsk came from watching "Soul" cartoon made by Pixar (2020), with our children. The main task for the main hero was to find a spark — something that enlightens and drives the person, so he had been quesitoning the whole time: "What's your spark?"
Natalia Makovsky
BRAND STRATEGIST
What's your salt?
It happens, that it is the only town branding with a question mark in the end of a slogan. It's a step towards what was officially forbidden in copywriting where the statement and unambiguity is a must.
Natalia Makovsky
BRAND STRATEGIST
Uncompromising slogan that we've created is not looking pleasant and mild, because it doesn't state that the tourist would find the satisfying answer inside himself. That is like finding out the truth about yourself, that might be sharp. So, the core of the brand can be seen here:
It's a town that doesn't state it straightforwardly, but asks. So that every person, could find his private answer for this question himself, no matter how satisfying it will be. Each will have a unique, different and personal experience. In case you lost and forgot of who you really are, then will be able to find yourself in Solvychegodsk, which will remind you of your personality.
You can't just translate the slogan to english without loosing dozens of details during the way. So we had to find a special one for the foreign tourists. And we luckily found it somewhere in the middle of "solo" and "alternative" words.
Salternative tourism
English slogan was "Salternative tourism" that sounds familiar to both "solo" and "alternative".
Saltidentity
Solvychegodsk logo consists of 8 shards of salt. One for each symbol of the territory.
  • Salt

    The most valuable thing made Stroganov empire prosper
  • Stroganovs

    The most successful start-upers and merchants of their time
  • Sanatorium

    Soviet era mud sanatorium
  • Architecture

    White stoned churches that still look like they meant to be back then
  • Kozma Prutkov

    Fictional character of 19th centure whose citations are still actual
  • Museum

    The one that keeps history alive and available for tourists
  • Joseph Stalin

    Place of exile of the USSR leader back in 1909 – 1911
  • Gastronomical

    Food tourism that yet had to be opened for public
How to make Solvychegodsk identity: take some salt and pour it on an amazing sharpy Zangezi font
Don't be afraid to over-salt with polygons and monochrome
As my attentive friends like to say, usually I prefer taking simple figures into action and use them for designs. Yes, it definately is so. You never go wrong with the beauty of simple shapes. In this case, I took polygons and abandoned all circles. In the next project, which is Monchegorsk branding, the rules would change vice versa.
Igor Makovsky
ART DIRECTOR, DESIGNER
Zangezi type
And, ofcourse, all salt of the identity lies on the sharp serifs of the outstandingly beautiful Zangezi font, made by the type designer Daria Cohen. I was seeking a chance to use it sometime and Solvychegodsk was that special rare project that was perfectly ready for it.
By the way, Daria offers a free licence for her typeset if used on a gravestone
Was it difficult for you to approve my Zangezi at the administration? No? That's impossible to hear!
Daria Cohen
TYPE DESIGNER
Map
Solvychegodsk map is one of our most mysterious and beautiful ones. It's like an x-ray plan of the place and looks awesome on a wall as a poster. Besides it became a source of many illustrations that form a special town pattern and take good use on souvenirs. We wrote an article on how it was made.
Humble, yet noble black map is standing out on the green street
Every element from the map can be used separately for other designs
Design code
Important part of the project was the global work on creation the town guidelines, that streamlined interrelated using of materials, adress plates, signs, fonts, colors used, etc. We have compiled the complex document, where no details remained unnoticed. More info on this project can be read in the article on the Solvyechegodsk design code.
Solvychegodsk town guidelines online
Excerpt from the brand guidelines, specific and general problems and how to deal with them, files with design, examples, references and everything is open for public
Support of the regional authorities
Saltfest
The annual Saltfest is somewhat like a unified set of events that took part right in the middle of summer in Solvychegodsk and include the town day, Kozma Prutkov art festival, and some others. It inherits the town branding guidelines with appropriate additions to it. The festival is curated by the team from Arkhangelsk.
Saltfest is one of the most notorious events in Solvychegodsk held in the middle of summer since 2023
Support of the local institutions
1. The historical sanatorium
Following the town brand, the local century-old mud bath historical sanatorium, has launched a gradual design and architectural renewal. Many people have heard about Solvychegodsk only because of it. We've developed a private brandbook, fully based on the town branding guidelines. The renovation was planned for the 100th anniversary of the sanatorium.
New Solvychegodsk sanatorium anniversary logo
Illustrated logo is using illustrations from the map
Some merch, some broschures and illustrated vk
A lot of work on the architectural work of the renewal of the morally outdated soviet sanatorium has been done by the new administration and the team. Architectural work was made by the local architect, Andrey Semakin. Something is already done as of 2023, whilst other is still in plans to be done later.
One hundred years old historical resort is keeping up to modern standarts, thanks to Andrey Semakin
2. The Zemsky guesthouses
The former hospital complex was carefully saved and reconstructed by Ekaterina Serykh into the best guest houses in the whole town, worth to visit for everyone. Here is it on Yandex maps.
The defining love with Ekaterina guest houses was keeping a birch tree growing through the porch roof for me.
Igor Makovsky
ART DIRECTOR, DESIGNER
Zemsky guesthouse logo
No place like Katya Serykh' Zemsky guest houses
3. The Museum
By museum we mean not only the historical museum building, but the whole set of churches that formaly belong to the museum itself, as well. We have created the identity that suits the town design and developed all sorts of templates that could be used inside the museum exhibitions both inside and outside.
Historical museum salty logo
Illustrated version of the logo is used on merch mostly
No matter state museum is always low on budgets, it tries to implement new designs as good as it can, thanks to the loyal support of its director, Maksim Chernykh.
Praise the typesetting skills of the museum administration. They do the best they can.
Solvychegodsk today
After receiving much attention from the Arkhangelsk authorities, Solvychegodsk became more recognizable in media and gained some funding to held an annual festival and maintain tourist activities. That hasn't solved logistical and infrastructural problems, though, as of 2024: still no cafe and both the hotel and the guest house is overbooked for the whole tourist season. That being said, branding symbolically launched a set of events that slowly tend to change the situation. At least we hope to.
Found some salt out there:
  1. Pomorland.travel on the new Solvychegodsk branding
  2. Bnkomi.ru on the Solvychegodsk brand and many else in 2023
  3. Rg.ru on Solvychegodsk modern look and Saltfest
  4. Pravdasevera has an article on the new Solvychegodsk brand
  5. Solvychegodsk museum website is dressed according to brand and its vk
  6. Solvychegodsk sanatorium website and vk
  7. Rebash on Solvychegodsk case with mentioning branding
  8. Saltfest in vk and its website (currently offline)
Left-to-right: Tatiana Alekseeva, Sasha Novikova, Natalia Rybalchenko with Mark Makovsky on hands, Igor Makovsky
  • Natalia Rybalchenko
    Brand strategist, researcher
  • Igor Makovsky
    Art director, designer
  • Katya Antoshkina
    Designer
  • Daria Cohen
    Zangezi type
  • Denis Zheleznyakov
    Design code implementer, Saltfest organizer
  • Andrey Semakin
    Architect, 3d visuals
  • Tatiana Alekseeva,
    Sasha Novikova
    Thanks for support
Made for Solvychegodsk
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ARKHANGELSK OBLAST
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