Amex ZA Graphic Arts Challenge
Client: American Express and Nedbank
Period: 2022-2023
Banking & finance
Awards & events
01 The sneak-peek
Everyone is welcome — signed by South Africa's artists
To bring its global 'Always Welcome' artist series home to South Africa, American Express asked BBA Liminal to conceptualise and lead the Amex ZA Graphic Arts Challenge — a competition that turned local artists' visions of the vibrant African marketplace into the welcome signs on shop doors across the country.
02 The liminal moment
A welcome sign on a shop door is a small thing that does a lot of work — it tells you whether you belong. American Express had run its 'Always Welcome' artist series elsewhere in the world; bringing it to South Africa meant more than translation. It needed point-of-purchase signage South Africans could genuinely identify with, made by the local creative community itself.
03 The transformation
We built the competition end to end. We named the Amex ZA Graphic Arts Challenge and built everything around it — website rollout, registration and entry mechanisms, social look and feel, content calendar and press — the full machinery that carried the theme to the country's artists.
04 The craft
The vibrant African marketplace — everyone's welcome
From canvas to shopfront: the competition identity carried across social, print and paid media; the Keyes Art Mile exhibition and its permanent mural; and the winning works themselves, reborn as point-of-purchase signage on doors across South Africa.
Amex ZA Graphic Arts Challenge Winners
Amex ZA Graphic Arts Challenge Finalists
05 The validation of purpose
"What an amazing event! We are so thrilled with how it went, thanks for a flawless execution and launch."
— Sarah Yee, Manager, Bank Partnerships, American Express
2 736 artists registered
>550 entries
92 artists, 6-week exhibition
Naming
Brand & communications strategy
Facilitation & convening
Exhibition curation
Digital strategy
Brand identity design
Brand platform development
Positioning & narrative
