Who was the author of the 1991 ‘YES’ logo?

The winner of the contest for the ‘YES’ symbol of the constitutional amendments referendum, Garoon production, received a 3 million dram prize yesterday during a fundraising event organized by the ‘YES’ campaign headquarters at the Dvin hotel complex. However, it became clear today that the logo presented by Garoon is a duplicate of the independence logo from 1991.

This topic has sparked widespread discussions online. Many are trying to understand who the creator of the 1991 independence logo was. Even Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan posted a picture of the 1991 logo on his Facebook page with the caption, ‘Searching for the original author.’

Media.am reported that the logo was first published in the September 23, 1991, issue of the newspaper ‘Evening Yerevan’. The article stated: ‘There is another variant of the ‘YES’ logo for the Independence referendum in the September 18 issue of ‘Evening Yerevan’, which may also be interesting to those who consider the 2020 ‘YES’ logo to be plagiarized.’

Users on social media are also searching for the original creators. The speculations are many, including names like Mikayel Matevosyan from the ‘Evening Yerevan’ newspaper, Grigor Khachatryan, Svabat Hakobyan, Artak Baghdasaryan, and Ruben Arutyunyan. However, neither the authorities nor the residents of the internet have been able to find the original creator of the logo.

Media outlets contacted Mikayel Matevosyan, whose name was also circulating, and he stated that he is not the author of the 1991 Independence referendum logo.

According to circulating news, the likely creator of the already well-known image from the 1991 Independence referendum ‘YES’ is Stepan Naroyan. Hours later, the theory was confirmed by artist Tsolak Ghambaryan, who referred to the logo of the ‘YES’ campaign for the constitutional changes, which resembles the already known logo published during the 1991 Independence referendum. It was featured in the September 23 issue of ‘Evening Yerevan’. The logo was indeed created by Stepan Naroyan.

Additionally, it has been revealed that a company named ‘Garoon agency’ was officially created on April 27, 2018. However, there have only been a limited number of posts over the course of nearly two years, and the page has just 580 followers.

It is also noteworthy that no company has ever been registered under the name ‘GAROON AGENCY’, and there is no record of such a company in the electronic registry of the Armenian government. Searching for that name in the system yields nothing in either old or new companies.

Furthermore, the name does not appear in the taxpayer search system in Armenia either.