13:15 • 03.10.17
The Armenia Country Branding team selected the year with a special purpose to ensure “the right targeting for the country on the international arena, and to secure maximum benefit from the information flows”.
Sources from the Development Foundation of Armenia (which is the Legal Successor of the National Competitiveness Foundation) say the agreement signed for realizing the project is still in the process of implementation.
The news on creating the national brand gained public attention back in 2012 after the National Competitiveness Foundation signed a memorandum of donation with the US Agency of International Development, agreeing to initiate the activities towards developing the logo. The Foundation later signed a contract with the GK Brand, a company based in the United States, over plans for creating a national brand.
The company’s founding director, Vazgen Kalajyan, unveiled the logo only in 2016 by publishing it on LinkedIn. It features a flourishing sun symbolizing what the authors call the idea of eternity; below are the scripts “ARMENIA The Story is Just Beginning ”
The authors’ idea was to create an image representing Armenia as a rare country with a high cultural impact on every part of the world and a considerable contribution to intellectual, spiritual, scientific and business development.
The fresh public debates that followed the publication of the logo gave way to wide speculations in the society and media that the authors had spent an estimated $400,000 on a design which “was not absolutely unique in either form or content”.
“A total sum of 62 million Drams [approx. USD 130,000] has been spent from the state funds; the rest of the expenses were to be covered by grants. The sum specified in the agreement has not been fully spent. No additional allocations are envisaged,” the Foundation says in a statement submitted to Tert.am in response to our earlier request for comments.
“The contract was signed between the National Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia and the company GK Brand. The contractual relations still continue, so no final procedures of handover and acceptance have yet been undertaken. The agreement is still in progress. The Development Foundation of Armenia is continuing its work to secure a maxumum outcome,” reads the written clarification.
