The corporate design for the Kleist Memorial Year 2011 is based on the idea of representing the biographical caesuras in Heinrich von Kleist’s life and his nomadic existence in a word mark. The serifs of the letters are cut off; the “s” is even cut into two parts. Thus the lettering appears unfamiliar and rather unfinished at first glance, even provocative perhaps – but as a result, it arouses the observer’s interest and is very memorable.The mark is therefore a symbolical expression, not only of the many farewells and new beginnings in the poet’s life, but also of the numerous projects and ideas that he was no longer able to realise due to his death at the age of only 34.The choice of the colour blue is oriented on the leading Kleist institutions in Germany: both the Heinrich von Kleist Society in Berlin and the Kleist Museum in Frankfurt (Oder) use blue in their publicity work. Building on this, three shades of blue have been designated for joint profiling of the museum and the society; they can be seen at the top of the page.The lightest of the three shades of blue stands for the central web-portal and the word mark of the Kleist Memorial Year 2011. The word marks of the Heinrich von Kleist Society and the Kleist Museum are oriented on this, but use darker shades of blue; their names have been abbreviated.The strength of this corporate design lies in its high recognition value (square, cuts, blue) and accompanying clear differentiations (adapted bottom lines, different shades of blue).

Design by André Ringel