At MOME, the Diploma process is a highlight of the academic year. Spanning several months, from thesis defences and graduate portrait shoots to the Diploma Exhibition and the graduation ceremony, it marks a major milestone in students’ transition into professional life. The Diploma visual concept has two strands: the graphic component and the graduate portrait photography, with the portraits forming part of the overall identity and displayed both on the Diploma website and at the graduation ceremony. 

The brief usually calls for a flexible, easily adaptable concept that works across digital and print platforms, banners, projections, and animation. Each needs to connect with MOME’s institutional visual language, give the Diploma process a character of its own, and create a clear visual distinction between BA and MA graduates. 

 The 2026 visual concept by Panka Mihalovits and Alexandra Ökrös grew out of a collective experience familiar to MOME students: a folder named “MOME” sitting on every student’s computer desktop. With its palette of champagne, ripe plum, and caviar black, and its pared-back simplicity, the identity feels elegant yet edgy. The core motif is the folder: an indispensable tool in the creative industries, in both analogue and digital form, used to organise, frame, and hold together the many different elements of the creative process. In the animated version, the folders move in a spiral formation reminiscent of a camera shutter, while the subtle use of light becomes a quiet metaphor for emerging talent. 

Looking back on the project, they said, “Perhaps the greatest challenge for us was the sheer scale of the task, together with the responsibility and pressure it brought. We wanted to create a concept and identity that everyone could relate to, and that was probably the most important consideration for us throughout the design process. One thing we would both highlight is the collaborative work. This was our first larger-scale project to have such a wide reach, both within MOME and beyond. This year’s Diploma identity was created as part of an elective course, and we would like to thank the other participants once again for their help. Working and thinking together was a great experience.” 

Developing and producing the artistic concept for the graduate portraits that form part of the identity is a challenge in itself. Several hundred students need to be photographed within a short time, with images that feel true to each person while still giving the series enough variety. The timing makes the task even more demanding: the shoot usually coincides with the end-of-semester reviews and the final production of the diploma projects, when most students are exhausted and already nervous about their upcoming thesis defences. 

This year’s photography concept was created by Aranka Csige and Menyhért Hivessy. Describing the build-up to the shoot, they said, “Before the photoshoots, a rumour started going around that this year’s theme was going to be Coachella and cowboys. On the first day, someone actually turned up dressed as a cowboy, and that was absolutely the right call.”  

For the portrait shoot, the duo used two different lighting setups: BA students were photographed against a saturated cosmic purple background, while MA students had a gradient backdrop lit in shades of purple.  

They took two photos of each student: one classic, ID-style portrait and one more relaxed, spontaneous shot, which could take the form of a full-body portrait, a personal medium-wide detail, or an object the student had brought with them. The images were then printed on A4 paper, slipped into clear plastic sleeves, filed in folders and photographed again, resulting is a nostalgic, photo album-like series that also serves as a kind of yearbook for the graduating students. As they put it, “Aranka finally learned how to use Photoshop, and Menyus learned to reply to messages.”