Shreya Arora
The
Unfiltered
History Tour
History belongs to its geography. And its people.
It's no secret that colonialism has caused a tremendous loss of lives and resources. However, another great loss is usually drowned out in the discourse- the loss of culture. The British Empire stole several artefacts of great cultural (and sometimes material) value from their colonies. Today, many of these artefacts still sit proudly displayed at the British Museum. The Unfiltered History Tour is a joint effort, by Dentsu Webchutney and VICE World News, to right this wrong.
The Story:
When I was only a week into my stint at Dentsu Webchutney, I was asked to create a working logo for the project. At that stage, UHT was still being pitched to VICE UK, and the team was only 8 people strong (for context, by the time the project went live 17 months later, the list of contributors had crossed 100). The initial ask was only to create a mock logo to get the clients onboard with our vision. However, I took it upon myself to expand the brief, and created a draft of an entire identity system, with ideas for extensions, within 24 hours. The best way to do justice to the process is to share not just the images or the logo, but the entire first deck I created for the team.
The Filters:
The best part about working on this project is how the team evolved with it. Few of us were core illustrators, but we were truly passionate about the story we were telling, and pushed ourselves to pick up a new skill. I illustrated 3 backgrounds depicting the story of the Amaravati Marbles, along with a colleague, Vaishakh Kolaprath.
In 2022, The Unfiltered History Tour became India's most highly awarded project in the history of the Cannes Festival of Creativity, bringing home 12 Lions including a Titanium and 3 Grands Prix. It also won Dentsu Webchutney the tag of Agency of the Year at Cannes. It was the privilege of a lifetime to be involved in this project from end to end, and the entire team hopes it brings the contested artifacts in the British Museum one step closer to home.