Indiga

nenets autonomous okrug

Indiga

From village branding into festival branding

Indiga is the coastal village in Nenetsky Autonomous Okrug. It stands on the mouth of Indiga river right where it meets Barents Sea, that in order, flows into great and endless cold Arctic Ocean. According to the plans, the governor of region had a plan to build a large northern federal port in Indiga because of its feature of not to get frozen in winter. Predictably, the main local activity is fishing.

We had been asked to make a social involvement and branding for the village.

Client: NAO Business Development Center

Work: Social work, branding, design

2019

Northernmost part of the Timan Ridge, situated next to Indiga

Indiga word could be roughly translated as a foggy river. The settlement was set in 19th century by the dwellers from the Mezen, town in Arkhangelsk region famous for its ornamental traditions. That's what we got from the internet research. Yet we didn't stop there and asked My_Arctic team to get us there. They kindly agreed in exchange of small favour of developing their personal brand too.

Road was tough, but it was the brightest memory of the whole year, indeed. We went there on snowmobiles and the road took us 2 days. We have broken the front windshield, almost lost a sledge in night, yet our reliable new friends from My_Arctic team helped a lot. We took our 9yo son with us. He caught a high fever during the trip and got to Indiga with 40° temperature.

Igor Makovsky

ART-DIRECTOR, DESIGNER

Results

Deep diving in communication

River is both a source for food, landmark and the essential road during the winter period
Dwellers from Mezen used the frozen Indiga river to get here
Non-freezing harbor is essential for the future of the village
Indiga river has its temper: the foggy river
River could change during the year span: white and flat in winter, ice drifting in spring, stormy and turbulent in summer, foggy and misty in autumn
Local residents are into fishing, thus spending a lot of time on the river

River Indiga and everything connected with it is the core of the tourist concept both graphically and mentally

Indiga logo

All year round

Northern territory means its lifestyle and amout activities will differ a lot during the year span. So we devided them into two segments: one for summer, another one for winter. Whenever we'll need it, it'll just be here.

Where to stay

First things first. It's the place to stay for the tourists. Most important was to develop a brand for the guest house. So it had to deliver idea of the territory we found out. We chose the most obvious one "River in the fog" and made a small brandbook for the owners.

What to do

The greatest attractor for the distant Indiga was the festival of the fishermen. Started as the local initiative it grew rapidly, due to request of the community. We've expanded the brandbook and made identity for it.

Festival logo inherits Indiga guidelines

Illustrations by the local artist Nikolay Vylko

Smelt and circuses!

Fishing activity appeared to be so resonating to the public, that the festival soon became the defining point of developing for the village. Request for broad festivals where people had to overcome distance to get to was vert clear and the event became annual and anticipated.

From local festical to the regional one

After 2023, the festival became regional project after the NAO administration finally estimated the tourist potential after 5 annual festivals. That means, festival will grow further and its history just began.

Digging Indinga in media:

Fish festival in Indiga on vk
Nice review in cringy quality on yt
Russia-wide Tass media on the Smelt festival in Indiga
Pomorie with its article on the festival
Local media Naryana Vynder on the smelt felt

Dream big. The festival got on the rails and ran forward with a powerful locomotive! I believe that our festival will spread throughout Russia. And fans of small fish and Arctic adventures will come to Indiga.