You may see it adorning billowing flags from above the city’s streets, or worn on a tote bag slung over someone’s shoulder - the Liverpool Biennial 2023 identity is colourful and striking. Responding to the theme of ‘uMoya: The Sacred return of Lost Things’, graphic designer and artist Thom Isom explores how the design graduated from vision to reality.

“My work explores culture and heritage through bold, engaging, and dynamic visual art and graphics that experiment with pattern, texture and typography,” he explains.

Liverpool Biennial first approached him in summer 2022 for a chat about the aims and themes for the festival. He was invited to apply for the role to design their identity and, after sharing a proposal, was selected and began work in late summer 2022.

The 12th edition of Liverpool Biennial ‘uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things’ addresses the history and temperament of the city of Liverpool and is a call for ancestral and indigenous forms of knowledge, wisdom and healing. In the isiZulu language, ‘uMoya’ means spirit, breath, air, climate and wind.

The festival explores the ways in which people and objects have the potential to manifest power as they move across the world, while acknowledging the continued losses of the past. It draws a line from the ongoing Catastrophes caused by colonialism towards an insistence on being truly Alive.

Featuring over 30 international artists with a dynamic programme, the visual theme would have to reflect this concept and also connect the diverse approaches and artistic medium presented by each of the artists.

The creative process began, says Thom, with two ideas.

“We explored two ideas in our original concepts in the visual identity for  ‘uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things’. Both stemmed from research of the movements, passage and traces left behind from transatlantic slave trade.

The visual approach was based around geometry. Creating an intimate marriage of lines, shapes and marks to form new meanings.

The first idea was quite literal. I traced maps of the triangular routes from Europe to Africa, to the Americas and back to Europe, marking the movement of enslaved people and traded goods through the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The marks, histories and tragedies left behind from this movement were traced over and over again, to produce an intricate and delicate graphic that entwined the uMoya title.”

The second idea was more abstract.

“(It) created lines in a design to connote the Kelvin Wake. The wake that is left behind when objects pass through water. The angle of the wake is always the same, 19.47°, this angle was reflected throughout all our designs, to create a uniform but intimate identity. The depiction of the kelvin wake conjures imaginations of the ships that left Liverpool, carrying enslaved people and colonial trading goods, and the ripples they left behind – both immediately and across history.”

This second idea felt the strongest of the two concepts.  It responded best to the festival theme and it gradually evolved adding softer gradients and more negative space to create a more fluid and delicate visual.

Responding to a theme like uMoya is a critical aspect in the practice of a designer and artist. Thom says that it is an enlightening process.

“Learning from others and working together to bring shared experiences and histories to life is something I always strive to do in my practice. Collaborating with curators, producers, artists and others designers to bring identities to life is key in any creative brief. I’ve lived in Liverpool for over 12 years now and consider it my home. Exploring the histories, themes of concepts of this Biennial has been an enlightening and broadening experience.”

As the finished design continues to flow through Liverpool as the Biennial continues, seeing it on the streets each day is a happy experience for its creator.

“We chose the kelvin wake as our main concept as it evoked the spirit, motion, and intimacy of ‘uMoya’. It was a dynamic, delicate, visually recognisable and an adaptable graphic we could bring alive across many channels.

It was my favourite concept from the very beginning. I could see the mileage in it from the start and felt it spoke openly, honestly and with heart to the themes of uMoya. It was a pleasure working with Khanyisile Mbongwa (LB2023 curator) and the team at Biennial to bring this identity to life and see it across the city.”

You can find more of Thom’s work here:

Website thomisom.com

Instagram instagram.com/thomisom