The Ion Ratiu Democracy Award display wall
Ion Ratiu was a prominent Romanian political figure, he has lived in exile for 50 years during the communist times, being active in the fight against the regime and in 1990 he returned to Romania, ran for presidential elections and bitterly lost, being called by many "the best president Romania never had". He served for the rest of his life as a member of parliament and fought with all his power for the democratic values he believed in and for his vision of Romania.
The Ratiu Family Charitable Foundation preserves his legacy and awards each year several prizes for distinguished fellows with significant achievements in Democracy and Journalism. To honor Elizabeth Ratiu's legacy an award for Mental Health achievements was also established in 2017.
Ion Ratiu Democracy Award display solution
The Ion Ratiu Democracy Award display wall - Before
The Ion Ratiu Democracy Award display wall - After
I was asked to come with a solution to showcase and honor the recipients of the awards. They used to have posters, which were displayed in the space, but as each year a new recipient is being added, this solution proved to be very unpractical. I wanted to design systems that would be easy to update, each year, and not require much space.
For the Ion Ratiu Democracy Award, which had been first awarded in 2005, I decided to produce a book system, where each awardee will have a page, and each year the book is updated easily.
The book stands on a wooden desk which is a discreet nod to the famous 1991 miners revolt scene in the Parliament when Ion Ratiu spoke from the parliamentary desk to the angry miners and managed, against all odds, to gain their respect and trust.
The book system is easy to update and visitors of the Conference Centre can read the stories of these exceptional individuals around the world who are working on behalf of democracy as activists or intellectuals.
Elisabeth Pilkington Ratiu Mental Health Award display solution
The solution for the Mental Health Award display came from a photograph of Elisabeth Ratiu that was very dear to the family and best represented her in her later years. Using a niche in the space itself, I made an integrated bookshelf on which each year we add a "book" for each awardee, describing their work and the achievements for which they are given the award.
Ion Ratiu Journalism Award display solution
The Ion Ratiu Journalism Award display wall - Before
The Ion Ratiu Journalism Award display wall - After
Ion Ratiu Journalism Award was launched in 2015 to promote investigative journalism and journalists. Again, the challenge was to design a system that would be easy to use and update. I wanted the final solution to feel real, so I designed a "newspaper" for each awardee, containing information about their investigative projects and excerpts from the investigations for which they received their awards. Printed in multiple copies, the newspapers can be read or even taken away by the public. I designed an iron newspaper stand which was mounted on the wall to showcase the award.
The entire wall was covered in newspapers, showcasing pieces of scanned articles by and about Ion Ratiu, and documents from the family archive.
