Published: July 06, 2015| 08:36 PM

Monday’s KVIFF Talk was given by three artists responsible for the visual appearance of the festival. Emcee Michal Caban, graphic designer Aleš Najbrt and photographer Václav Jirásek presented, among other things, their design for this year. It was Jirásek who photographed the more than eight hundred festival attendees whose portraits you can see on posters, programmes and catalogues. “I sent all of my subjects an email telling them that they would appear in the KVIFF visuals, but paradoxically, people began to contact me when the posters appeared on the streets—they remembered that I had photographed them and wanted to be part of the project,” said Jirásek.

Aleš Najbrt was invited to collaborate on the visual design of the festival with Jiří Bartoška in 1995. He was involved in harmonizing the visuals of the brochures and other printed material. “For a number of years we made sure that everything was clear and matching, hopefully this helped the festival at the time,” Najbrt explained during the discussion. Michel Caban described the designing of the opening ceremony, on which he collaborated with his brother Šimon. He shared his initial ideas with Jiří Bartoška as early as January. Thanks to their use of unusual scenery and tools, the monumental introduction and conclusion became a classic festival experience.