Memorial has a new design. How was it updated?

After International Memorial and Human Rights Defence Center Memorial were liquidated as legal entities under Russian jurisdiction between 2021 and 2022, many thought (and some hoped) that Memorial would stop its work. But it cannot be further from the truth: Memorials continue functioning in many countries and cities, and new Memorial organizations appear. And now, we have a new visual identity to reflect our history and the changes we have undergone.

Why does Memorial need a redesign?

International Memorial was liquidated as a legal entity at the beginning of 2022. However, Memorial was never confined to a single organization. Memorial is a movement. It is the people and associations in different cities and countries, who haven’t stopped their work for a single day for the past 35 years. 

International Memorial Association was created in 2023 in Switzerland, uniting many of these functioning organizations.

Memorial has had a few recognizable images associated with it for the 35 years of its history. With regard to them, in current conditions, at this new stage of life, we decided to try and update the visual identity of the movement. The red candle flame, a symbol of Memorial that many recognize, remains present in our new logo. With it, we wanted to say that we are the same Memorial that was gaining speed in 1989, and, at the same time, we are not stuck in 1989. We are the Memorial of 2025, we found ourselves in this new, terrifying era that presents new challenges. And Memorial is looking for ways to match these challenges, finding and curating a new language and imagery to describe, understand and work under these new conditions. While we foster the continuity with the history of the movement, we cannot avoid change. These visual updates emphasize our way forward.

Memorial strives to be open, accessible, clear and inviting. We are grateful to be able to share our versatile expertise in Soviet history and human rights and support the people resisting today. We tried to express all these notions through our design.

Memorial’s logos until 2023

The symbol widely recognized as the emblem of the Memorial movement — the writing in a square frame with the capital M and the candle flame — has existed since the late 1980s.

Pins with this symbol were worn at protests at the end of Perestroika (late 1980s), when Memorial was forming as an organization. It didn’t become the official emblem of the organization straight away, however. For instance, the official forms of the Moscow Memorial had the image of the “Monument to the Victims of Violence” by Vadim Sidur as a logo, showing a person with their hands tied. 

There were other ways to represent Memorial apart from the logo with the flame. Here are some of them.

But it was the symbol with the red flame that became the basis of the original logo. The majority of Memorials used its variations. In 2015, the graphic representation of the logo was updated, with its form intact. 

The logo was not unified, in the end, and there were many variations of it within the movement. 

During the campaign against the liquidation of International Memorial, the “Мы” (“Us”) logo was created. The Nobel Peace Prize committee took the letter M and the proportions from this logo to adapt for the ceremony — this symbol became widely known. 

How we updated the logo

The rigid frame around the text has now transformed into an independent element in the form of a “sound wave”. This is a metaphor for both the impossibility of expressing something and the search for one’s unique voice. At the same time, this line can remind you of the silhouette of an urban skyline, a line depicting someone’s way on the map or a heartbeat. Or, maybe, you see something else?

The letter “M” has been modified based on the one in the anti-liquidation “Мы” logo. The flame remained, only its shape was updated.

We’ve swapped our previous shade of red for a brighter magenta color. It symbolizes energy and newness, evokes images of red carnations and other flowers (important attributes of memory activism), and creates a contrast with the dusty, worn grey. 

Design & concept: tmr. design, New York