We recently had the opportunity to rejuvenate the AFRI-INFRA Group brand to that of AFI Consult. AFI Consult are a young, dynamic team of professionals, dedicated to providing innovative and viable solutions within the consulting and engineering environments.
The brief was to create a Corporate Identity that was young and fresh, yet still appropriate within their professional environment. Furthermore, the AFI Consult team wished that the rejuvenated brand made reference to an African identity.
Inspiration for their new Corporate Identity was drawn from the artist Mondrian. The appearance of vertical and horizontal steel girders used in construction are reminiscent of the strong vertical and horizontal lines of Mondrian’s De Stijl era paintings.
It is not here that the similarities between Mondrian’s paintings and some of the principles of engineering end.
Both take an analytical approach – taking into account the arrangement of shapes, balance, measurements, geometry and how things fit together. Mondrian used an analytical approach in order to represent nature in its purest and simplest form. Engineers pare down and analyse cost, strength, and serviceability. Precision of logic and the rational universe of geometry are evident in both Mondrian’s paintings and in engineering practices.
Although design influenced by Mondrian or De Stjil has an appealing, sophisticated European aesthetic, there are also similarities between the work of Mondrian and African art – both favour bright colours, geometric abstraction and strong linear elements. The painted dwellings of the Ndebele people are an excellent example of these similarities.
