A week ago, Rokas Sutkaitis, a Vytautas Magnus University student and a freelance graphic designer, started a new Instagram blog called ’Soviet Logos’. The account has almost 3000 followers as of March 7th and it definitely hasn't reached its peak yet. The project has already been featured on Brand New, Vice, Birds In Flight etc.
As a #kaunastic trademark for ‘Inkaras’ (‘Anchor’) rubber product plant designed by a local artist K. Šveikauskas has just been published, we couldn’t help but ask Rokas some questions.
Rubber Product Plant 'Inkaras' (Anchor), Kaunas, Lithuania
Designer: K. Šveikauskas
Year: Unknown
'Soviet design (the term wasn’t used at that time), same as Soviet art, reflected the ideological changes in the system. First, brave decisions of the constructivists followed the post-revolutionary dynamics. A more traditional social realism took over during the reign of Stalin and was eventually changed by modernism which market the warmer period after the dictator’s death. This period is in fact the most interesting when talking about Soviet design per se as this is when its traditions were formed’, Rokas explained his field of interest.
Dairy Products, Panevėžys, Lithuania
Designer: R. Smuriginaitė
Year: Unknown
‘Design today is often compiled of fast and easy decisions; this makes a lot of it uninteresting’, observes the future art historian, ‘I see much braver and more complex choices in logos created decades ago’.
Experimental Design Bureau, Lithuania
Designer: K. Ramonas
Year: 1964
Some of the logos - or trademarks - he has managed to find and is now getting ready to post online have never been published. ‘They come from all over the place, pictures, diplomas, newspapers… Even home appliances made in USSR’, says the designer. He also spends a lot of time browsing online - a very interesting collection was recently discovered in a Russian plumbers’ forum. Rokas has archived around 800 logos and he hopes to increase the number.
Rokas told us more #kaunastic logos are on their way to be uploaded on Instagram. Can’t wait! Follow his project here.