L.A.-based studio Forth+Back have created the new brand identity for Sotheby’s Motorsport (SOMO), pairing Leto (Ornamental & Title Type) with ABC ROM (Dinamo). From the case study:

SOMO is reshaping automotive auctions by pairing its industry expertise with a digital platform built for modern collectors, making the experience more transparent and accessible than ever.

Forth+Back was brought on to refresh SOMO’s identity with a system that feels sleek, modern, and aligned with the platform’s forward-thinking approach.

Our studio introduced a new streamlined wordmark that is low, elongated, and designed to feel sharp and fast even when static. The expanded palette adds a bold hit of orange to a foundation of racing green and gold, supported by a range of tones that allow the brand to shift its voice depending on the moment.

For the style guide, we selected a format inspired by retro driving manuals, offering clear and concise instruction with a functional, on-the-go sensibility.

SOMO’s updated foundation extends into a flexible layout system that uses the physicality of the mark and strong blocks of color to frame logos, imagery, and key information across the brand.

FH Total is the brand typeface of Etaire, a workspace and office founded in 2024 in Copenhagen. From their About page:

Etaire means companion. We create bags and jewelry with unified shapes and elements, intended to be worn and kept close.

A Baianeira is a restaurant where food evokes a territory between Minas Gerais and Bahia, combining the familiar and the sophisticated, the inventive and the traditional. Its visual identity draws on raw clay, the cracks of pão de queijo, latticework, and ceramics from the Jequitinhonha Valley, while the snake, a symbol of vital force and protection, links the system to the natural and the magical. EK Roumald by Erkin Karamemet is a serif typeface that blends classical elegance with irregular, organic forms, capturing the tactile, earthy essence of Baianeira, while Haffer from Displaay Type Foundry offers a clean, contemporary counterpoint.

An advert for advertising; and one that links together three important names in the history of UK advertising as well as contemporary German design. It appears in the April 1928 issue of the noted German graphic design magazine Gebrauchsgrafik and was issued by the Berlin office of the noted London based advertising agency of W.S. Crawford. The company was founded by William Crawford in 1914 and for much of its existence was based in High Holborn; its later HQ building with a striking stainless steel facade survives close to Holborn Tube Station. During the 1920s and ’30s they maintained an office in Berlin and this speaks of the ready acceptance of continental practises and movements, such as the Bauhaus, on Crawford’s approach to business for their clients.

One of the names most associated with the company at this time, and for the next two decades, was that of Ashley Havinden who had joined as a trainee in 1922 and who by 1929 was artistic director. Interestingly, the lettering in this advert slightly echoes lettering designed by Havinden for the important client of Chrysler Cars and that was later issued by Monotype as a commercial typeface. It appears that here the German typeface Neuland, by Rudolf Koch and first issued in 1923, is used. Crawford’s were using the typeface in adverts from c.1927.

The advert itself is by Edward McKnight Kauffer who by this date was one of the most successful designers and artists at work in advertising. American born but since WW1 based in London, McKnight Kauffer’s early break had come with commissions for Frank Pick at the London Underground Group and he became one of the more influential ‘advertising artists’ in the 1920s and ’30s. This advert, in German, is very similar in style to a series of contemporary Crawford’s adverts in British advertising journals.

The main text, roughly translated, reads:

The Stronghold of Advertising. Hard. Crawford works hard in Berlin. Thinking. Planning. Drawing. Writing. Creating tirelessly. And chimneys smoke day and night. In the Ruhr area. In Upper Silesia. Sirens roar through the ports. Swing wheels churn. Hammers bang. And drills screech day and night. In the factories. Reconstruction! Reconstruction!! They all help. They all create. For Germany’s prosperity.

It is interesting to see this take on the period when Germany's industries and its economy in genral, were desperately attempting to revitalise in the era of post-war calamity, reperations and political instability.

The main title is “The Stronghold of Advertising”. The graphics suggest industry, coke ovens or blast furnaces, against a background of towering chimneys in smoky shades of black and grey.

Beauty lies in the details – this was the case in the rebranding of an anti-aging clinic Dr Frankel's run by renowned specialists Dr Agnes Frankel and Dr Adam Szuścik. With a clear vision of the French-inspired aesthetic, we created a brand identity reflecting elegance and professionalism backed up by science. For the logotype we chose a caps-only headline typeface, LL Numberplate France, based on the official car registration plates of France – playing with the connotations of “unisex French charm”. The signet, being a turned monogram, can also be understood as “a key to beauty”. In addition, we created and supervised the production of a range of supplements enhancing balance and vitality.

Pirelli World magazine is the modern, global evolution of the company’s house organ, Rivista Pirelli, which began in 1948. Launched in 1993 as a global concept, World tells stories of innovation, culture, business, technology, sport, and lifestyle, reflecting Pirelli’s heritage and global reach through photography, illustration, and design. It serves as a tool for in-house communication and a public platform for engaging communities across various platforms, from its renewed print version to its website and social media.