The Ale Kino! Festival is one of the oldest film festivals for young audiences in the world. Its organizers approached us with a clear goal: to create a collection of pins that would be more than just a simple souvenir. They wanted an item that would capture the festival’s spirit, energy, and excitement, while also serving as a small memento for participants—from children and teens to adults and teachers.

About the Client

For over four decades, the Ale Kino! Festival has been presenting award-winning films from Poland and around the world to young audiences—films that move, inspire, and linger in the memory long after the screening.

The event attracts young viewers, entire families, and teachers with school groups. Its program includes feature films, animations, and documentaries. The festival allows you to “see more than just a movie”—because in addition to screenings, it offers a rich program of accompanying events, meetings with filmmakers and actors, animation workshops for children, and Audience Design activities for the industry, through which it supports filmmakers in designing films with the audience in mind.

The festival involves participants in shaping the event, allowing them to help decide on awards, serve on the jury, or curate their own film selections.

Project History

When Ale Kino! Festival approached us with an idea for a pin collection, we knew right away that it would be an interesting project. Usually, our graphic designers develop designs for clients based on their ideas. In this case, however, the organizers came to us with a finished illustration created by Paweł Mildner—an illustrator who collaborates with the festival. This wasn’t a problem for us—our role was to transform his vision into a physical product that would accurately capture the design and character of the festival.

The Challenge

Our task was to transform the finished illustration by artist Paweł Mildner into durable pins that would capture all of its details.

We focused on refining the design for production: from selecting the right materials and enamel colors, through precise surface finishing, to hand-painting each piece. This allowed us to pay attention to even the smallest details of the illustration.

Result

• We reproduced the artist’s detailed illustration, preserving not only its shape but also the energy and character of the design.
• The use of traditional casting methods, along with hand finishing and enameling, made the pins both aesthetically pleasing and durable, with every detail of the illustration clearly visible.
• Despite the tight deadline, we prepared and delivered to the client exactly the product they requested, within the agreed-upon timeframe.

This is how the collection came to be—one that preserves the festival’s unique style while meeting the highest standards of our products. And all of this was made possible thanks to the expertise of our artisans and 100% Polish production, over which we had complete control.

Summary

The pin design project for the Ale Kino! Festival demonstrated that even a small object can capture the character and emotions of an event. Collaborating with the artist’s existing design allowed us to combine creative vision with precision in production. The result is a collection that preserves the spirit of the festival and serves as a lasting memento for attendees.