We designed the official mark for Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates 30-year diplomatic anniversary. The work gave the celebration in Abu Dhabi a shared visual language rooted in both cultures.
Component case-study.quote failed to import/load
In the room
The Vietnamese community in the UAE gathered with the mark at the anniversary. Photo: Embassy of Vietnam in the UAE.
Shared stage
H.E. Nguyen Manh Tuan and H.E. Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi during the program. Photo: Emirates News Agency-WAM.
Hàng Ba is a cultural space that uses specialty coffee to tell stories about local materials, Southern architecture, and everyday memories.
Scroll
Overview
On 21 September 2023, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates marked 30 years of diplomatic relations at Emirates Palace and the National Theatre in Abu Dhabi. The Embassy of Vietnam in the UAE and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked us to design the official logo so the evening had one clear visual throughline: one that guests from both countries would recognize as theirs.
Opportunity
The anniversary needed a mark that could live on the stage, on invitations, and on the clothes people wore that night. It had to feel ceremonial without becoming a mash-up of flags. We started from what both countries already share in daily life: rice as Vietnam's grain of livelihood, and the Ghaf tree as a living emblem of the Emirates.
The mark
The logo brings those two sources into a single composition. Two women in typical dress stand for the people of each country. The rice grain and the Ghaf tree sit in the same field so neither culture is a guest in the other's picture. The result is a mark you can read at a distance on a theatre curtain, and at close range on a lapel.
How it showed up
We carried the mark into printed matter, garments, and the architecture of the evening so guests met the same language at the door, on stage, and in the program. The work stayed in the diplomatic setting it was made for: not a campaign for the feed, a system for a room full of people.
Producer
Minh Nguyen
Designer
Nam-Bao Tran
SPECIAL THANKS TO
H.E. Nguyen Manh Tuan & Embassy of Vietnam in UAE
