Nelson Mandela Marathon

Event branding for the Nelson Mandela Marathon in Cape Town, race day 18 October 2026, and for the Nelson Mandela Global Running Series it sits within.

A marathon is a brand people meet in hundreds of places at once: a bib pinned to a shirt, a kilometre marker at the roadside, a podium under camera flashes, a story on a phone the night before.

The brief was a long list of print, signage and digital items across the start, the route, the finish and the race village. Every one of them had to feel like the same event.

The identity is built around a portrait of Nelson Mandela made from circles, set on black with a bright, high-contrast palette.

Each distance gets its own colour, so runners, marshals and spectators can read the race at a glance. The line that runs through everything: Rise. Remember. Run.

• 5 km, 10 km, 21 km and 42 km, each colour-coded
• One portrait mark, used large on hero pieces and small on functional ones
• Bold, condensed type that reads from a distance and on the move

Feather banners for the elite hydration stations, table cloths, registration backdrops, the start bridge and the winners' podium: built for scale and for daylight, and checked at real size.

Route maps, start times, cut-off times and quote markers for social, in vertical and portrait formats, so runners could plan their race from their phones.

The same language carried into the Nelson Mandela Global Running Series: tog bags, notebooks, folders and merchandise built around the values printed on them. Courage, Dignity, Equality, Unity, Freedom.

• Race bibs for every distance
• Start bridge, start box and finish artwork
• Kilometre markers, distance and directional signage
• Registration and collection point branding
• Feather banners, table cloths, tent signage and stage banners
• Winners' podium
• VIP invitations and stationery
• Route maps, cut-off times and social templates
• Global Running Series tog bags, notebooks, folders and merchandise