Trogir is a Croatian city whose historic core is protected by UNESCO. Our mission was to put Trogir’s rich past and heritage in a contemporary context, with a compelling story that would attract tourists, but above all, evoke the pride of the residents and bring life back to the old town throughout the year.
We discovered that in the Middle Ages, world class craftsmen worked in Trogir, creating masterpieces, but also leaving smaller, detailed traces throughout the old town, mostly on the facade and in the interior of the city cathedral. Trogir is the city with the most of such marks in all of Europe – dashes, commas, initials, grids of the merels game, and signatures testify to the daily life of these medieval, master craftsmen, their prayers and vows or games that shortened their time on the job.
The challenge was to unify the city’s masterpieces with the “medieval graffiti,” which we did by creating a story that called for discovering the traces of the masters in every corner of this beautiful town.
Our strategy, brand story and the slogan “Marked by Masters,” testify to the city of masters, and how their masterpieces, and the clues of their presence, do not fade. Today new generations of craftsmen – sculptors, jewelry makers, tanners, tailors, chefs, winemakers, painters, all together prove that craftsmanship still thrives in Trogir.
The new visual identity outlines the traces carved in stone through pictogram system and logo that depicts the merels game, which is one of the common clues left by the old masters. An engraved signature of the medieval master Muscardello served as the basis for Trogir’s custom typography.
The new brand story evoked a strong sense of pride among Trogir’s residents. It was embraced wholeheartedly by today’s craftsmen and made their work and products more visible and attractive to tourists.
It positioned Trogir as a unique Mediterranean destination that will be engraved in memory, just as a memory is engraved on a building, once made by the city’s master craftsmen.
