Khafagi photo: Bassam El-Zoghby
A logo needs to convey an immediate message to its viewer, using the simplest pictorial language. Idea, symbol, and colour must come together in a manner that can be instantly comprehended, and though the end result must appear simple the process by which it is reached is not.
Designing the logo for COP27, which will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh between 7 and 18 November, took several months and a team of 10 people, says Sameh Khafagi, the man in charge of coming up with the graphic.
The nexus of ideas the logo needed to portray to an international, African, and Egyptian audience was the biggest challenge, says Khafagi, who has worked in graphic design for 18 years.
Khafagi and his ream are no strangers to the issues involved in climate change, having designed the Egyptian Pavilion during COP26 which was held in Glasgow, Scotland.
In a nod to the history of Egypt, the host country, the upper portion of the design represents the rays of the sun, echoing depictions in ancient Egyptian art of the power of the Aten, the sun disk.
“The Aten represents the sun, and its rays end with hands outstretched in a symbol of giving the land prosperity, warmth, and growth,” says Khafagi, adding that the sun is also a symbol of Africa. Beneath the rays curves the line of the horizon, depicted in green to contrast with the golden yellow of the sun’s rays and represent the colour of the vegetation on the surface of the Earth. Beneath the horizon, blue lines are used to symbolise the world’s oceans and rivers, repositories of the water on which all life depends.
To reflect the international dimensions of the summit, the letter O in COP27 encircles an image of the globe, which tellingly is turned to Africa, the continent in which Egypt, this year’s host, lies.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 22 September, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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