Turning Brainstorming into Reality
Ever since I started working on my website last year, I’ve tried to design a logo that could embody my vision of translation as much as I felt my motto did: Translation Makes the Word Go Round! Back in October, it looked like a pretty straightforward task to me. But the truth is that was easier said than done!
The basic concept revolved around the union of two speech bubbles symbolizing the difference in languages – hence translation, making that world go round which would emerge from the union that enables communication: mutual understanding through words. But it proved challenging to express the underlying pun at the core of my motto playing on word and world, with several attempts being made and just as many proposals being discarded.
When I realized my digital notebook wasn’t helping condense my ideas into the right shapes, I resorted to a good old-fashioned book of plain paper. After an intense brainstorming session, a sparkle of creativity emerged in full colors: I finally found the logo I wanted to represent my vision and mission!
To me, translation is a movement towards the other aimed at letting us turn into them, rather than transforming them into us, thus becoming a richer, more comprehensive whole – in other words: one word, one world! Such movement shouldn’t force the difference distinguishing the other to appear more familiar, thus converting their most intimate identity into something we may feel less alien as well as more acceptable and comprehensible, but should enable us to learn the difference and assimilate it as our own identity in order to move much closer to each other and understand what makes humankind unique in diversity: a valuable opportunity to grow richer in difference by turning it into unity! Without translation, the world would remain static and still, firm on limited convictions and poorer overall. Translation, instead, makes the world go round because it enables this movement, adding dynamism, energy and richness for us all!
With 5033 layers roughly representing the number of today’s spoken languages worldwide (and likewise the same amount of thanks to everyone involved for their support and patience), I am truly proud to present the final version of my logo.
