Statement Films sought to create an umbrella media company in order to take their business model to new sectors and creators. Following a successful launch focusing on women filmmakers from the African continent and diaspora, they decided to pivot their approach and champion all creatives from the region. We worked with Founder and CEO Areej Noor, along with her collaborators Robert Cordero, Ryan Carpenter, and Lila Nordstorm, on the naming, positioning, and branding of STATEMENT.
The STATEMENT brand is a promotion platform, so it needed to be both iconic and recognizable in its own right, yet not steal the spotlight from the artists they champion. The mark itself is at first unassuming, until the unusual ink traps and angles become apparent. Generous use of white spaces evokes a fine art framing for the artist's images. A dynamic ticker system whisks messaging away in a protective color chain that can slide over film and photography.
STATEMENT represents artists from the entire African continent, which contains thousands of spoken languages. Founder and CEO, Areej Noor, identified 8 writing systems that would allow for digital and print communication across a few hundred of the most used languages. Some, such as Arabic, have plenty of beautiful typefaces to choose from. Conversely, there is Zaghawa, a Saharan language with a single digitized typeface not yet supported by Unicode. We built the typographic system to cater to the styles of the rarer typefaces, aiming for visual consistency of the STATEMENT brand throughout all translations.
STATEMENT launched in the summer of 2023 with editorial coverage of the African entertainment industry. They also launched their Creator Studio which specilizes in brand partnerships and collaborations with creators to produce authentic and inspiring content and live events. Statement Films, now their production arm, continues to source, produce and develop film and television IP led by African female writers, directors and content creators.
SELMAN TEAM
Anne Di Lillo
Johnny Selman
Jordan Tran
Katie King Rumford
Megan Greig
Client Team
Areej Noor
Jackie Cloud
Lila Nordstrom
Robert Cordero
Ryan Chanatry