With 53% of the votes, Isabella Fernandez, the creator of the “Open Arms” logo, won the “A Republic Full of Talent” contest, a Country Branding project that has attracted the attention of society in recent days.
“The open arms of the Dominican Republic to the world”, is the concept conveyed by the young designer through the logo, which will represent the half-island to the rest of the world.
Isabella also won RD$3 million in electronic equipment to develop her entrepreneurial project, as well as a full scholarship to the Miami Ad School.
Another of the prizes she will enjoy, as well as finalist Alejandro Soto, is a year of consulting in entrepreneurship so that they can promote their projects.
Alejandro, second place winner with the logo “País Infinito” (Infinite Country), wanted to show in his design the links that show the infinite possibilities of the country to the world.
The finalist will receive RD$1 million in equipment to promote his project, as well as a half scholarship at the Miami Ad School.
The remaining 21 participants received recognition from Marca País and a contribution from the Dominican Association of Commercial Communication Companies.
On October 20, the Multisectorial Commission came up with the idea of launching the “Country Brand” strategy to position the Dominican Republic before the rest of the world, and at the same time counteract the negative effects on tourism and the economy caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The action plan included the design of a new logo by the Mexican company Beker, which would be the hallmark of the project, at a cost of RD$32 million.
The project saw its first problems when speculation began about a possible plagiarism of the logo, at which time Russian designer Ivan Bobrov assured through his Instagram account to have elaborated the logo in 2014.
“I have never participated in that country branding process and the logo was never sold in any stocks or galleries (I never did that with any of the logos I have made),” the post read.
After the avalanche of criticism the Ministry of Tourism decided not to use the logo and called the “A Republic Full of Talent” contest for young graphic design and advertising students to produce a new one.
The competition was turned into a televised program and aired on Color Visión at 8:00 pm.
