Visual Identity

In 2017, Bologna Children’s Book Fair decided to commission a young artist from the many talents selected for the Illustrators Exhibition to create the fair’s visual image, under the guidance of Chialab Design studio. 
We felt the time had come to hand over the task of our visual image to the world of illustration, a major player at the fair since the very outset.

This was how the “BCBF Visual Identity Workshop” got underway together with Chialab, the design studio in charge of the event’s visual identity practically every year since 2009. 
This intense joint design collaboration between the design studio and illustrator begins during the spring and has its first public appearance at the Frankfurt fair in early autumn before becoming the visual image of all facets of the Bologna Children’s Book up until the next edition. 

Following on from the success of the fresh invigorating image given by the Italian Daniele Castellano in 2017, subsequent years saw extremely productive partnerships with talented young illustrators from several different countries. 
In 2018, the book fair’s visual identity was developed by the French illustrator Chloé Alméras. In 2019, it was the turn of the Russian artist Masha Titova, while the 2020 visual identity of the completely new Special BCBF Online Edition was the work of the Lithuanian illustrator Rasa Jančiauskaitė. For the fifth edition of the “BCBF Visual Identity Workshop” in 2021, Chialab and the BCBF team have chosen the Parisian illustrator Jean Mallard, among the winners of the 2020 Illustrators Exhibition and of the 2018 ARS IN FABULA scholarship jointly instituted by the ARS IN FABULA School of Illustration and BCBF. In 2022, the Chialab working group guided the Mexican illustrator Sólin Sekkur towards the creation of what was to be the visual identity for return in presence of Bologna Children’s Book Fair, in 2022. For 2023, on the occasion of BCBF's 60th anniversary, Chialab has shared the challenge in a collective workshop, in order to create a 20-handed visual identity and convey the scenes and characters - that BCBF has welcomed and hosted over 60 years - in a single unified vision.

Visual Identity 2024 - Immerse Yourself in Children's Content

 The lively and colourful 2023 edition celebrated BCBF’s 60th anniversary with a visual identity composed of contributions from twenty illustrators, each offering their own visions of the fair. To astound visitors at the 2024 edition, however, Chialab opted for the calm and peaceful strokes of young Portuguese illustrator Inês Oliveira. After the red, orange, yellow and magenta of the previous edition, this year sees blue, azure, teal, turquoise and emerald green strike a contrast with the memory of 2023 that makes the present stand out even more.

Immerse yourself in children’s content” is also the slogan for BCBF 2024. Inês Oliveira’s images, in fact, serve as an invitation to visitors to take the plunge and allow themselves to be transported by the currents of the vast ocean of literature and content for children and young people, an ocean that is renewed and replenished at each new edition of BCBF. This year this imaginative and colourful world is filled with fantastic creatures that will welcome visitors to the halls of the BolognaFiere Exhibition Centre. Suspended within an infinite horizon, visiting professionals at the fair will encounter a fish-comb, a sweater-wearing mermaid, a sperm whale-volcano, a hot air balloon-shell, a lighthouse-squid and a mushroom-jellyfish - Amanita Chrysaora, Architeuthis Mangiabarche, Santiago Montgolfier, Plastic Harengus, Sirena Diplopia, Spermaceti Pyrotechnics.


Inês Oliveira

ines oliveiraInês Viegas Oliveira was born in 1995, in Tavira, Portugal.
In an attempt to know everything, she graduated in Physics and after half a master’s degree in mathematics she realised she knew nothing. She then did a postgraduate degree in Illustration at UAL, which made her feel more relaxed.
 
In 2020 and 2023 she was selected for the Bologna’s Book Fair illustrators exhibition and in 2022 she was a finalist in that same exhibition.
She was part of the European project Every Story Matters, which promotes inclusion through stories and books. Her first book “O Duelo” arised form this project, and in 2022 is published by Planeta Tangerina. “O Duelo” won the National Illustration Award 2023 in Portugal.
 
Inês moves between science and art, author and reader, image and words, trying to break some boundaries. She continues to ask a lot of questions, but once in a while she stops to write or to draw.
 

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