Is There Beauty
After Death?
branding, graphic design, photography
Rhode Island School of Design
The Sedlec Ossuary is a Roman-Catholic church located in Kutná Hora, Czech Republic. Known to most as the Bone Church, it is home to some of the world’s most unique and macabre art: tens of thousands of human skeletons, combined in ornate and elaborate arrangements.
This project consists of an identity system for the ossuary, which manifests in a publication, souvenir posters, and a series of magazine ads.
I wanted to design a system that evokes, and respects, the unique cultural balance the ossuary resides in—on the one hand, it is a macabre tourist attraction; on the other, a site of historical and religious significance. The ossuary itself, operating under the jurisdiction of the local Catholic parish, encourages these contrasting perceptions. It is at once the most visited tourist destination in the Czech Republic after Prague, and a functional church which holds regular services and Christmas Mass. While there is perhaps something humorous about a Catholic church positioning itself as a prime destination for Goth tourism, this duality is evocative of a deeper facet of the site’s essence:
The ossuary serves both as a memento mori, and a celebration of the surprising genius of human life.
Identity system
The logo references the shape of the church windows and the ossuary’s unusual contents, highlighting both the site’s religious significance and its macabre appeal. The letterforms in the logotype vary in baseline and are conjoined to create a pile of bones quality, particularly as they interact with the mark.
The typography palette pairs the ornate qualities of Sabbath Black with the clean lines of Nimbus Sans, alluding to the convergence of form that takes place within the ossuary— the organic maximalism of human skeletons combined with the somber geometry of Gothic architecture.
This series of magazine ads promotes a museum exhibit about Sedlec Ossuary. The photographic content is framed by the church window, but split in half, causing the reader’s engagement with the ad to begin with a small moment of defamiliarization, of unmet visual expectation. This act draws attention to the significance of the ad’s content itself—a unique vision of the afterlife, an unexpected form of the other side.
Magazine ads
Booklet
The Ossuary is part of the Kutná Hora township, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Thus, the promotional booklet contains two sections: three texts specific to the Sedlec Ossuary in one, and a standard UNESCO text in the other. The two sections can be initially browsed as one continuous publication. Once done, the UNESCO sub-booklet is removed as the ossuary pages unravel and unfold into two souvenir posters.
