Toronto-based agency newkid (a play on the concept of the newly-arrived kid in town, or in school) claims to nurture the visual Identity as well as the verbal identity when approaching a client. They did so beatifully with their all-encompassing rebranding of Primer, a Florida-based network of teacher-led K-8 schools that is expanding its presence to other parts of the US.

As stated in the project page, Primer resorted to newkid to rebrand and overhaul its footprint, which entailed “brand strategy, full identity system, website, and brand launch film”. The website is not a mere window display, as the company seeks investors and parents alike to join its network.

The website rebuild brought the full brand system to life across a complete digital experience (...). Built to serve families at every stage of consideration, from first encounter through enrollment, it also functions as a brand statement for investors, press, and prospective Primer Leaders.

As we’ll see, a playful and colourful Mondrian-like grid and two gorgeous fonts support this effort: Sirca by the Parisian foundry Edito and Söhne by Klim Type Foundry from Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Sirca Medium is employed in the six-letter wordmark and it embodies the charisma and the gravitas of a brand that exudes the privilege of quality private education and the promise of multifaceted creative learning.

Söhne Buch is used for buttons, some explanatory or secondary items headlines and body copy, but Sirca still reigns supreme, just like San Diego’s famed news anchorman Ron Burgundy in the 70s.

One thing to note is that typographical hierarchy here is definitely not constrained by customary web-based typesetting, as no headline is too loud or strident from a design point of view to outshine the Primer wordmark.

For instance, the news section header, “Latest Primer news”, is 2.5rem– or 48px tall, only slightly bigger than the Primer wordmark: the logo SVG seems to be rendered by the browser at circa 32px—pun intended. Then, each headline features 1.75rem/33px headlines.

So the scale used purposely avoids excessive contrast in the headline line-up and adopts a smooth sizing approach.

One exception would be the often-neglected footer section, which has been cooked to perfection, meaning grid, typographical contrast and use of photography. The size contrast is enough to parade the wordmark in all its glory, although the designers chose to use a blue-coloured dot at the end to punctuate —pun intended—the brand.

Some of the signature traits of Sirca are the sharp edges in the m’s and w’s and its distintictive letter a, which seems to have lost weight due to a bout of melancholy. They cannot be spotted in the Primer mark, but the reader can still catch them in the headlines.

As for the marketing copy, claims and leading ideas have been fitted into very short headlines that extend the glow of the flagship serif employed in the project. Nothing is out of place or necessarily in the expected place in the website, and the sans/serif pairing works like a son cubano choreography: leader and follower both shine in their respective roles.

In a time of Claudemania, AI imagery and design copycats, the Primer brand and editorial vision serves as a showcase of what fine art direction, fine photograpy and videomaking, fine typography and fine copywriting—all of them human-based—are capable of. Cheers to human craft.

Wordmark

Website footer

For the public launch of Howie, newkid – a Toronto-based branding agency founded by Alex Avendaño, Matt Donne, and Rich Brown – designed the visual identity and system for an AI assistant focused on managing email calendars. Howie was created by the Seattle-based startup co-founded by Austin Petersmith and Dave Newman, built around a simple but ambitious idea: automate meeting planning and coordination with the efficiency of a top-tier executive assistant, all directly from a user’s inbox.

In line with the studio’s strategic approach – combining positioning, user research, and brand behaviors – Howie’s identity intentionally avoids the usual AI visual clichés. While many products rely on futuristic aesthetics and generic effects, newkid developed a visual language drawn from office tools, administrative interfaces, and familiar software systems. This approach grounds Howie in the professional everyday, turning the assistant into a practical tool rather than an abstract tech gadget.

Typography plays a central role in reinforcing this logic. Blaze Type’s Slussen provides modern clarity and readable hierarchy, while OCR‑A adds a technical, almost mechanical quality reminiscent of automated systems and data flows. Together, these type choices create an identity that prioritizes structure and efficiency over spectacle, visually expressing Howie’s promise: a reliable, unobtrusive assistant integrated seamlessly into real-world workflows.

Standard Equipment offers tools for non-standard living:

All products are components of a unified system to transform one’s domestic spaces into environments that cultivate positive emotional states.

The presence of the letter ‘S’ and ‘E’ on commercial products denote a registered corporation that designs and fabricates tools for living.

The branding and website were designed by newkid using Apparat and Waldenburg.

Toronto-based branding studio newkid designed an identity for Quagga, a brand of self-assembly platform beds.

The logo is designed in Ozik (from Nuform Type). A pair of secondary typefaces, Gustavo (from Lift Type) and System Mono (from Frost Type), complete the typographic system.

In a feature by The Brand Identity, newkid commented on the typographic choices:

“As we explored the brand and the typography, we quickly realised that a ‘standard’ typeface wasn’t going to cut it. In the spirit of the brand, something quirky and playful was required,” shares Co-founder & Design Director Rich Brown. The studio found the perfect answer to the problem in Ozik by Nuform Type. “The letter forms (particularly the lowercase) are not only wonderfully weird, but the squared, angular edges feel reminiscent of the wooden components that the Quagga beds are built from,” adds Brown. In an apt nod to how the wooden blocks of the bed can be fitted together, the team imagined each letter as a singular component that could be animated to “slot” together, forming the completed wordmark. The final piece of the puzzle was a pair of secondary typefaces – Gustavo Bold by Lift Type and Frost Type’s System Mono – that combined boldness, with an inviting and playful tone.