NII Archive. Remontage


Logo and identity for “NII Archive.Remontage” CCA Winzavod 

Dmitry Krasnov
Yana Kan
Arina Kantuganova
Daria Korenchenko
Anna Mahatadze 
Sofia Kashintseva

At the end of 2024, the Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art launched the NII Archive project (НИИ Архив), standing for “Science, Research, Art, Archive.” It’s a large-scale initiative to archive and systematize all materials in possession of the Winzavod related to contemporary Russian art — acquired since the center’s opening in 2007.
Alongside the online archive, the project will hold annual exhibitions. The first one is titled NII Archive. Remontage. Our agency was employed to create an identity for both the NII Archive project and its debut exhibition.

The exhibition’s name Remontage references both winemaking and archaeology terms —
 for the visual identity, we found the most inspiration in the latter. In archaeology, "remontage" is the process of restoring a whole object from its fragments. This concept became the core of our visual idea: abstract graphic shapes, symbolizing the assembly of parts into a whole, complemented a strict and functional identity.
The main visual code included handwritten signatures — the kind that archive staff might leave on forms, papers, and catalogues. The combination of hand lettering with set typography creates a feeling of manual information organization, as if each exhibition element was carefully arranged by a real person. Also, the signatures echo wine bottle labels — after all, a wine cellar is a kind of “archive” too.

For the project, we developed designs for physical and digital assets: invitations, volunteer forms, souvenirs, posters, building banners, navigation materials, and social media cards and posters. Each visual communication element is infused with the idea of careful organization and a personal contribution to archiving contemporary culture and art.