Victoria Stiftelsens 100-årsjubileum
Sigil Illustration, 2020
On March 20, 2021, it will be exactly 100 years since the Church of Sweden's home for unmediated Swedish women in Copenhagen, the Victoria Foundation, were inaugurated.
The foundation was named after King Gustaf V's wife Queen Victoria and was inaugurated in 1921. This significant part of women's history and Swedish-Danish cultural history the Swedish Church - Gustafskyrkan wanted to celebrate and asked me to create a Sigil with an illustration of the foundations building.
So I did!
Here is the result and the story behind my thoughts and creative process.
STONE SIGN
When I photographed the Victoria Foundation's facade (one early morning when I was standing in the middle of the main street on Folkebernadotte's alle to get the whole front), I discovered that above the door in the middle of the house, it says VICTORIA STIFTELSEN (Victoria Foundation in Swedish) like a stone sign sculpture. I felt so lucky, that there was a Typography from this year 1921 that I could base my design on! No one in the Church told me about this stone script!
To be able to scale up the letters in different sizes, I have drawn it in illustrator so they are vectorized, I have also used the existing letters to be able to write "ANNIVERSARY"(ÅRSJUBILEUM) , however, I had to come up with the letters that were missing as Å, B, J , U and M!
NUMBERS
The Sigill also needed numbers. I did not find a good font for the numbers as I wanted it justice the letters to be from the time when the house was built.
I decided to find a style from the time and by hand draw the numbers that might have existed in 1921. Then I realized that the answer was in the Swedish Church! What could be a better inspiration than the Psalm numbers that are hung on the psalm board?
VICTORIA FOUNDATION'S BALCONY BOX
The balcony box that can be seen above the door on the Victoria Foundation's carries a V in a circle with a crown on top. A detail to show that this house bears the Royal name Victora, Victoria of Baden (married to the Swedish king Gustav V) who was the protector and initiator of the Victoria foundation.
I have taken the artistic freedom to draw
geranium flowers that are sometimes planted
in the flower box. In Sweden the flower is called;
"Mårbacka Pelargon", and in Denmark it is called;
"Queen Ingrid Pelargon", from the
Swedish princess Ingrid from the Danish
Royal house.
So the flower also carries a royal name!
BRICK BY BRICK
The house is not completely straight along the roadside as it is built on a downhill slope.
I remember that when I lived in one of the apartments at the front and polished the windows. My little stool worked great for those first two windows closest to the door but all of a sudden those second windows were higher up and I did not reach them!
It can also not have been easy to build the house, as all bricks have different sizes! I noticed this when I was drawing the house brick by brick!
I wonder what size the first foundation stone was, that was laid in 1920?
The house at Folke Bernadottes Alle 2 in Copenhagen.
A MODERN ELEMENT
In the process of figuring out how the Sigil should be designed, I thought about how to add a more modern element. As the Sigil was primarily to be used in the invitations for the celebration I got the idea to add a more festive element in the form of "Ribbon lettering".
I made a proposal in watercolor but never got it into the design of the sigil when better ideas came up. However, it later turned out to work in the layout of the invitation to bring in a little more party and color! This idea got accepted by the churchyard and ended up in the final design of the invitation!
As I am writing this text the celebration have not taken place yet so the last two pictures is only suggestions on what more ways we might use the design.
Do you need an illustration for your event? Please contact me!
As suggestion for the book that is in the making.