Linguistic Diversity

Among all the creative projects we’ve embarked on at Giovanni Morra, one stands close to my heart for its cultural significance – our initiative called “Linguistic Diversity” (Georgian: „ენობრივი მრავალფეროვნება“). This wasn’t a typical commercial campaign or a product launch. It was a passion project born from our love for Georgia’s rich tapestry of languages. Imagine a country as small as Georgia, yet home to multiple distinct languages that have survived for centuries. We have Georgian, of course, but also Svan, Megrelian, and Laz – languages as beautiful and ancient as the mountains they echo from. This project started as a simple idea: what if our brand’s platform could help preserve and celebrate these endangered tongues? So, we did something unprecedented – we translated our entire website into Svan, Megrelian, and Laz, making it the first Georgian website available in these languages. For me, writing from the perspective of Giovanni Morra, this was deeply personal. Our brand persona has always championed expression and diversity, and what is language if not the ultimate tool of expression? By embracing linguistic diversity, we hoped to spark a conversation about cultural preservation through design. This blog post will delve into the story behind the project, the visual design elements we created to honor these languages, the message we aimed to send about heritage, and how it impacted our community and brand. If you’ve ever heard a Svan song or a Megrelian proverb, you know the soul that lives in those words. With this initiative, we wanted to say: these languages matter. They are not relics of the past; they are living treasures that can shape our future. "ჩვენი ეები გვაეთიანებს" – "Our languages unite us" in all their splendid diversity.

The story of “Linguistic Diversity” began with a realization and a bit of worry. As a brand deeply rooted in Georgian culture, we often draw on local themes and history for our designs. At some point, we realized: we celebrate Georgian art, costumes, and history , but what about the languages spoken by Georgians that are fading away? Svan, Megrelian, and Laz are part of the Kartvelian language family, just like Georgian, but unlike the state language, they have no official status and fewer and fewer speakers, especially among the youth. We read studies and spoke to linguists who warned that these languages could disappear in a few generations if nothing is done. That struck a chord with me. Language isn’t just a collection of words – it’s a repository of a people’s memory, humor, values, and worldview. As one of our team members said, just as a gene carries so much information, a language carries entire histories. We felt that if Giovanni Morra truly cares about Georgian culture, we can’t ignore this quiet crisis. So in 2020, our small team decided to act. The first big step (and yes, it was a big step for a boutique brand like ours) was to make our online presence multilingual in these endangered languages. It had never been done before by a Georgian brand – or any organization here, to our knowledge. It was challenging: we reached out to experts, like the Megrelian Language Association, to help with translations. I remember nights spent on our website’s backend, figuring out how to add a Svan language toggle! But on October 29, 2020, we proudly announced that giovannimorra.com was now accessible in Svan, Megrelian, and Laz. This was just the beginning of the story. Once the site was live in four languages (including Georgian), we started brainstorming other activities. We wrote blog posts in those languages, shared fun facts about each language’s unique phrases on social media, and even planned product ideas. The vision expanded: why not create products featuring the rare scripts of these languages? For instance, we toyed with the idea of a scarf where each stripe had a quote or a poem line in Svan or Laz. We created a few prototype items: one was a poster series where each poster displayed in Georgian alphabets accompanied by a beautiful quote in that language. These prototypes got a lot of love from our close community and encouraged us to plan a full product line. The story is ongoing – as I write this, we are developing a collection that incorporates Svan and Megrelian lettering into modern design. What started as a worried discussion in our studio turned into a full-fledged campaign to remind Georgians of the linguistic jewels we have. It’s a story of acknowledging a problem (the threat to our smaller languages) and choosing creativity as our response. And it’s also a story of collaboration – without the native speakers and language enthusiasts who guided us, we could not have done justice to this project.

The visual identity of the “Linguistic Diversity” campaign needed to reflect the uniqueness of each language while showing them as part of one family. We asked ourselves: how do you design something that encapsulates Svan, Megrelian, and Laz together? Our solution was to create a modular design system that could highlight each language’s script and character. One of the first visuals we developed was a campaign logo: a square emblem that had stylized text inside representing all four languages. In that graphic, we used parts of words from each language to create a cohesive design – a kind of linguistic puzzle. (Insider secret: The shapes in the logo are derived from the words for “language” or “word” in each of the three tongues!). Below that emblem, we placed our brand name in Georgian, almost like a stamp of pride. We chose a color gradient background moving from earthy orange to turquoise green, symbolizing the sunrise and forests of western Georgia – homelands of these languages. Beyond the logo, the print materials and digital assets of the campaign each took on a life of their own. For Svan, we leaned into motifs from Svaneti: the iconic Svan tower silhouette, snowflake patterns, and we wrote short phrases in Svan (with translations) on our visuals. For Megrelian, we used patterns inspired by Colchian art and the vine motifs of Samegrelo, with Megrelian proverbs appearing in elegant script. For Laz, we incorporated wave-like designs (thinking of the Black Sea coast where Laz communities live) and the Laz script in bold, artistic arrangements. We wanted people to see these designs and immediately feel a connection, even if they didn’t understand the words – a sense that this is something Georgian, yet more. A key part of the visual identity was also typography:  Seeing them together in one layout was striking – it visually communicated diversity and unity at once. That was the essence of our visual concept: to illustrate that these tongues, though different, share a common spirit. Each design element, from the fonts we chose (we even designed a couple of new characters for Svan sounds!) to the color palettes (drawing from nature and traditional clothing of each region), was intentional. We wanted the campaign’s visuals to be educational yet artistic – something that a viewer might first find aesthetically pleasing, and then be intrigued enough to learn more.

As I wrap up this reflection on the “Linguistic Diversity” campaign, I feel a deep sense of gratitude and hope. Gratitude to all those who joined hands with us – the translators, the speakers who shared their voices, the supporters who cheered us on. And hope that this work will continue to ripple outward. In closing, I want to stress why this project matters beyond just our brand. It’s a reminder that culture is not static; it’s what we make of it today. We often think of preserving culture as keeping something old alive. But culture lives only if it adapts and finds a place in people’s hearts and daily lives. By integrating Svan, Megrelian, and Laz into something as contemporary as a brand website and modern designs, we aimed to pull these languages from the margins right into the center of modern Georgian life. Perhaps one day it will be normal to see a Svan word on a T-shirt or a Laz lullaby featured in a pop song. That’s the future we dream of – one where no Georgian feels their mother tongue is inferior or “forgotten.” For Giovanni Morra, this project reinforced that our creative journey is about more than aesthetics or trends. It’s about ideas, identity, and impact. We’ll carry this lesson forward: that every time we embark on a new design or product, we’ll ask, what deeper story can this tell? I encourage everyone reading this to think about the languages or traditions in your own family or region. Celebrate them, use them, share them – turn them into something creative. Because what is not used is lost. Our campaign was just one spark; keep it glowing. As a brand persona, Giovanni Morra would say: “We are all storytellers. Whether through words, images, or languages – tell your story, and listen to others’. In those stories, our heritage survives.” Thank you for caring about this journey. მოდით, ერთად ვიზრუნოთ იმაზე, რომ ენობრივი მრავალფეროვნება დარჩეს ჩვენს სიმდიდრედ – let’s together ensure our linguistic diversity remains our wealth, for generations to come.