![]() And in the aftermath of the reactor meltdown, a process identified by scientists as among the most “iconic natural experiments on rewilding in recent history” has led those forests to now teem with wildlife unlike any else seen in Eastern Europe. The densely wooded areas, rare for most of Ukraine, shielded tectonic political rebellions for centuries. Chernobyl was an important city in the development of Hasidic Judaism, for example. While a majority of visitors come to immerse themselves in the ruins of Chernobyl’s Soviet Atompunk landscape, some also explore the culture that long predates the nuclear era. “We wanted to tell the world that there is a lot to learn from the rebirth of Chernobyl, and that there are a lot of important scientific and cultural dimensions to it.” and there’s a lot of myths about mutants in Chernobyl,” said Danya Nesterevych, one of Banda’s lead designers on the project. “People associate Ukraine with war and corruption. At a time when Ukraine’s government has struggled to gain the world’s attention amid a seven-year war with Russia, an unresolved refugee crisis, a suppressed economy, an embarrassing supporting role in the first impeachment of Donald Trump, Carpathian mudslides, and forest fires near Chernobyl, authorities jumped on the opportunity for a free rebranding. Moved by what they saw, Banda representatives reached out to the Ukrainian government agency responsible for managing the 19-mile-radius Exclusion Zone around Chernobyl with an unusual proposal: a visual brand for Chernobyl and its legacy. The tour of the site was the first time many of Banda’s young designers had thought much about the radioactive legacy all around them and the gravity of what transpired at the former nuclear power plant. The HBO historical drama about the disaster had just been released, piquing curiosity around the world, including locally. When it came time to organize a company picnic in the summer of 2019, 20 graphic designers from the agency decided to pile into a bus and head straight for the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident. Since Ukraine’s government first allowed tourists to visit the area in 2011, thousands of people have visited the abandoned cities and towns frozen in time, stood at the base of the reactor, and have witnessed the material effects of nuclear meltdown firsthand.Ĭhernobyl is just a two-hour drive north of the Banda design agency’s offices in Kyiv, Ukraine. It has been more than 35 years since the fourth reactor at Chernobyl’s eponymous nuclear power plant exploded, killing dozens immediately, thousands in the aftermath, and rendering nearly 1,000 square miles uninhabitable in Ukraine and Belarus.
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