The logo of the UBA was created by Stefan Kanchev, in 1973. Since then, it has invariably been present on all visual materials related to the UBA activities.
Formats and Usage
All printed and digital visual materials concerning exhibitions and events organized by the UBA should feature our logo. The same applies to all partnership projects.
Here you can download the necessary formats.
About Stefan Kanchev
Stefan Kanchev (1915 – 2001) was a pioneer of graphic design in Bulgaria. He won worldwide reputation and has been included in a number of prestigious encyclopedias about graphic design and trade marks. Japanese journals Igarashi and IDEA analyzed respectfully his philosophy and refinement in graphic design. Numerous publications in American, Hungarian, and German journals (Novum Gebrauchsgrafik, Neue Werbung), feature Kanchev as a representative of Bulgarian graphic design and an artist of singular talent and professionalism.
In 1967, he was presented at the Trademark internationall, New York, with 23 trademarks. In 1994, Stefan Kanchev was officially listed among in top ten most prominent graphic artists in the world. At the international trademark center in Ostend, Belgium, he was placed among legends like Paul Rand and Saul Bass, Yusaku Kamekura, Jacques Garamond, Franco Grignani, Josef Müller-Brockmann, Jan Rajlich, Anton Shtankovski, Hermann Zapf.
Stefan Kanchevʼs work is a remarkable mix of cosmopolitanism and faithful adherence to Bulgarian folk art and visual heritage. His trademarks impress by his imaginative ideas and aesthetic virtuosity.
“Coming up with a sign requires capacity to synthesize, where it is a must to be closely familiar with the respective issue,”
says Kanchev, and:
“Applied graphic art is not just a cosmetic accessory to the environment we live in”.
His professional development followed the traditional order: apprentice, journeyman, master. Son of a well-known icon-painter from the old town of Kalofer, he studied, eyes and hands, traditional Bulgarian decorative codes. He worked with the teams of famous Bulgarian artists even as a student. By the mid 1970ʼs, he was already an institution, an artist of indisputable aesthetic sense and exceptional industriousness.
Some of the most popular logotypes of his were those of the TABSO (the Balkan airlines later on), of the National Palace of Culture, the State Puppet Theater, the Petrol fuel company, the Central Department Store (TSUM) and the Bulgarian National Television.
“Canons get obsolete, and lag behind the dynamics of the times”.
Novelty inspired him: abstract art, op-art; this is apparent in his work after the 1960ʼs – instead of “chattering” ornamental rhythms, he built a graphic system of stringent structure and mathematical logic. The graphic vignettes and signs he painted using brush and tempera impress even today with their flawless vectors and lines, geometric figures and color harmonies, the result of a perfect aesthetic and semantic order.
“I am pro everything new. Pro modern art. Pro all movements that time breathes life into”.
Awesome Volume of Artwork
Hundreds of post stamps, books, posters, thousands of trademarks, greeting cards, advertising magazine pages, de luxe stationery, labels, packaging... Kanchev worked profusely – and tirelessly, it seems – in all genres of graphic art. He was also active and uncompromising in the committees he headed at the UBA and the Center of Applied Aesthetics. His criteria were exactly the same he applied to his own work – dynamic and harmonious compositions, adequacy to the specific task, attention to the graphic order and equilibrium.
Typefaces
Stefan Kanchev was familiar with the best samples of typefaces, both Bulgarian and foreign, and used skillfully the stylistic features of the respective characters. He addressed successfully the difficult task of combining Cyrillic and Latin letters. He also created inimitable new fonts. Bulgarian Cyrillic typefaces owe a lot to this master who is still topical in the beginning of the 21st century. Kanchevʼs typographic examples show new images, of brilliantly combined logotype and typographic elements. Viewers would often remain unaware of the fact that the final result has actually been achieved by letter and image – two components that are heterogeneous in their nature.
Trademark
Numerous logotypes produced by Stefan Kanchev are still in use in Bulgaria. Television aerials are now almost forgotten fact of the past, yet Kanchevʼs logo of the National Television (letters Б and Т combined as a TV aerial) is still current and recognizable. The logo of the Petrol company continues its life through the good-natured dragon, despite the fact that the company itself underwent numerous transformations. The UBA itself struggled with the crisis of the transition period under the logo designed by Kanchev. Black Sea resorts still use his logos, with inimitably interwoven gulls, waves, birds, geometric figures, minimalistic hotels. Most Bulgarian publishing houses still use his trademarks. Kanchev demonstrated exceptional ingenuity using but the limited opportunities offered by geometrical figures like square, circle, triangle.
Computer and Hand
Stefan Kanchev knew exactly “how”, not just “what”. Quite flawlessly, he composed his logotypes and virtuoso calligraphic works as combinations of dense/blank, visual/associative, image/sign.
“Some people think that the computer will do it all for them. Technology save time, thatʼs all. Yet, a computer design should be touched by human hand, to become graphic art”.
