Nowadays, the World Economic Forum has become almost the main event of international politics and economics. The main goal of the WEF is to improve the global state of the world by assisting the world community in addressing issues of economic development and social progress. The WEF implements several international economic programs aimed at combating unemployment, increasing investment in developing countries, innovations in the financial sphere, etc. The WEF is also involved in the implementation of several international economic programs.
The World Economic Forum was founded in 1971 as an international non-governmental organization. The first conference was attended by 444 heads of large enterprises from 30 countries. Today, the WEF members are about a thousand large companies and organizations from more than 70 countries.
Klaus Schwab, a Swiss professor of economics, was behind the idea of creating a platform for discussing global issues. Initially, such annual meetings were called “European Management Forum”. In 1976, the forum for the first time introduced a system of permanent membership and went global, including the Arab world and Latin America in the system of its summits, and three years later, in 1979, cooperation with China began. Thus, since the 1980s, the World Economic Forum has had the status of one of the main events of the year in the international arena.
During its existence, the WEF has been visited by many dignitaries. Among them: US President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others.
As for WEF membership, there are several categories. The largest annual fees are paid by the forum’s strategic partners, including such major transnational corporations as Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Coca-Cola, Boeing, Nestlé and others. They actively participate in all forum events at the global and regional levels, utilizing their resources and expertise to achieve the overall goals of the WEF. Another category is annual event partners.
The difference between partners and ordinary members is that they have several privileges: the right to delegate more of their representatives to the forum and, as a rule, they are given more time and attention during seminars and round tables. The bulk of WEF members consist of businessmen representing large national and transnational companies with smaller annual turnover.
What is the World Economic Forum?
World Economic Forum is the largest international non-governmental organization headquartered in Geneva. The annual WEF forum is traditionally held in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos, from where it gets its unofficial name (the Davos Forum). In addition, the WEF holds annual regional and national summits in different countries.
In terms of visual identity, the World Economic Forum has managed to perfectly depict its main aim, striving for a better future by joining forces, in pretty simple shapes and laconic composition.
The official logo of the World Economic Forum, introduced in the 1970s, is an open circle that connects the three letters “O” in the name of the organization, written in three levels. This is how the WEF graphically shows its core values of coming together to improve the world’s economic situation.
After the refinement of the WEF logo, the contours of the lettering got cleaned up and became more distinctive and balanced, while the thin arched line turned blue, using a smooth yet quite dark shade. The logo of the organization now looks very harmonized and evokes a sense of excellence and a fundamental approach.
The medium-weight uppercase lettering from the official logo of the World Economic Forum is set in a geometric sans-serif typeface, which is quite close to such commercial fonts as Cosmata, R-Flex, or Klein with slightly extended and refined contours of the characters.
As for the color palette of the World Economic Forum’s visual identity, it is based on a combination of black and blue for the elements and white for the background. This tricolor is usually associated with stability, competence, and expertise.