From School for the City:

The Independent School for the City is a post-graduate educational platform based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The school is an initiative of Crimson Historians and Urbanists and ZUS (Zones Urbaines Sensibles) and is rooted in their practices of combining a critical and activist approach to the city with effecting real change through architectural and planning projects.

All-caps Cerbetica (Monofonts) is used for the menu and headlines. Surt (Blaze Type) comes discreetly for the text.

Gerstner-Programm FSL in use for the brand new visual identity by Vrints-Kolsteren for the iMAL: an international pioneer art centre for digital culture and technology, located in the centre of Brussels, Belgium. From The Brand Identity:

For over 20 years, they’ve supported artistic and creative practices in the digital world by hosting exhibitions, conferences and performances, as well as critical research and debates around the current and future challenges faced by our technology-driven society. As of 2020, iMAL have reinforced their position as an international pioneer by relocating to a new venue with a larger exhibition space, an expanded state-of-the-art ‘Fablab’ and a digital library.

The relocation is accompanied by a new visual identity courtesy of Antwerp-based studio Vrints-Kolsteren. Their solution gives equal standing to each of iMAL’s departments by assigning a geometric symbol and colour to each one. The identity plays freely with these elements, using the shapes to inform both the grid system and the halftone image style. The flexibility of the system allows it to easily scale in its intensity, moving between multi-coloured clashes of image, text and shape to pared-back, single-colour arrangements.

Modo Construcciones is an Argentinian construction company with the aim of long-term growth in a sustainable way. They differentiate themselves from the average construction company in quality and personalised customer support.

Their new branding has been developed by the design agency Tuco (Rosario, Argentina). The new brand system is heavily based on the Protipo typeface family. The brand has a dynamic typographic system organised in two blocks that can be easily adapted to different situations, as can be seen on their social media pages.

FF Nort is the primary typeface in the branding of Catch the Fire –

a global non-denominational Charismatic Christian ministry that includes churches, music, books, schools and events.

The website shows the use of the font within the communication. The physical appearance of typography — the size, colour, and most certainly the font – plays an incredibly important role in the way in which written pieces come across.

BeOnMind is a movie and production company based in Bratislava. The company started its existence in 2010 and after 10 years, it was about time for a rebranding. The idea combines pixels and the filmstrip motive – emphasizing the intertwining of analogue and digital. The pixels in the filmstrip are sometimes deliberately misaligned – a purposeful moment designed to surprise. Just like in a real movie.

The logo and main information are set using a mix of TWK Lausanne and Neue Pixel Grotesk.

Jetts is a fitness company with more than 250 gyms around Australia, Thailand, New Zeland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The identity pairs two typefaces that draw inspiration from early sans serif type. All caps Grotzec Condensed Black is used for headlines, with smaller texts set in the regular width of Founders Grotesk.

ABC Favorit in use for the identity of the 2018 edition of the Wiesbaden Biennale. The identity is based on the minimal information for an identity: festival name, date and the two short words of the festival theme. The “Bad News” design is not minimalist: there’s black on white and white on black; left-aligned and center-aligned; upright and rotated. Inside the festival newspaper, the design abandons the frugal approach and shifts to tabloid press mode with justified body text, borders and rules and large all-caps headlines using exclamation marks, partially set in italics, reversed and outlined.

From Fons Hickmann:

We are inundated with real news, fake news, and bad news: The world is changing, and not always for the better. Populism has re-entered the mainstream, holding court everywhere from barstool discussions, to parliamentary sessions, to newspaper headlines. In keeping with this phenomenon, the second Wiesbaden Biennale for Performing Arts, which will be held this summer in the Staatstheater Wiesbaden, has chosen »Bad News« as its theme. To announce the occasion, we designed a newspaper that evokes the style of the tabloid press, with large, flashy fonts communicating the highlights of this year’s event. (...) We used striking typography, exclusively in black and white, with plenty of space for speculation and interpretation.

Les Deux Scènes / Scène nationale de Besançon was born in 2012 from the union of two institutions, the “Théâtre musical” and the “Théâtre de l’Espace”. Since 2013, Garaje has been in use for various communication matter of “Les 2 Scènes”.

OneFourFive Clarendon is a modern workspace, developed by Salta, designed by Architectus and created for future-focused businesses looking to situate themselves in Southern Melbourne. The development aims to attract like-minded progressive people with a conscious focus on connectivity and local activity.

With this in mind, Melbourne-based Studio Brave developed the narrative ‘A Life Unlimited’ as a way to express how the building will allow businesses and their employees to achieve the contemporary model of a professional-lifestyle balance. This narrative is complemented by a graphic identity that intends to subvert the boundaries of expectation within the commercial property landscape in the confluence of GT America and bright colour, materials and finishes that evoke the context-sensitive tectonics, layers and composition of the building, and photography by Josh Robenstone of the South Melbourne urban landscape.

Read more about this project on BP&O.

Maison Neue (Milieu Grotesque), Reckless (Displaay), and Founders Grotesk (Klim) in use for the identity of Angela Roi. From A-B-D:

Re-positioning Angela Roi as the voice in ethical fashion. Angela Roi believes personal style should not come at the expense of personal values.

Angela Roi aims to transform the way we think about fashion, with ethical accessories that are good for all creatures.

Angela Roi needed to lead and own the movement in ethical luxury. We developed a badge that could be worn by their ethical army, “The Creatures of Conscience” as a symbol and stance in ethical fashion.

Inspired by the chants and rally cries of activists we developed a repetitive typographic system, visually bringing the emotion, passion, and power to life.

From Pentagram:

Toronto’s post-industrial eastern waterfront contains some of the largest areas of underdeveloped urban land in North America. “Toronto Tomorrow” is a proposed masterplan that will transform the location into one of the most innovative districts in the world, developed by Sidewalk Labs, the Alphabet subsidiary that reimagines cities using design and technology. Pentagram collaborated with Sidewalk on the design of the draft Master Innovation and Development Plan (MIDP), a massive, four-volume, 1,500-page document that details the proposal. The books’ design helps establish a visual identity for the project, using color, typography and illustration to capture the vibrancy of Sidewalk’s vision and balance the technical and the human. […]

The designers wanted a typographic tone of voice somewhere between sharp and technological and warm and human. They looked at the expressive differences between serif and sans serif font, ultimately selecting both, but in unconventional choices. The final suite of typefaces includes Neue Droschke (designed by David Einwaller of The Designers Foundry), an attenuated geometric Grotesk with unusual offcuts, seen in the book titles; the quirky sans serif Beatrice Display (designed by Sharp Type), used for the distinctive numbers on the covers; the standard Beatrice, a highly readable Grotesk, used for text and body copy, and Gliko Modern (designed by R-Typography), an elegant serif, used for headers and pull quotes.

Sparkling Blanc de blancs (Traditional Methode Champenoise).

Knockout lended this packaging redesign for cult winery Creekside Estates in the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario, Canada a dynamic structure and modularity needed for varietals and brand / presentation consistency.

These attributes manifest themselves via the identity which is rooted in a simulated woodtype lettering style and peppered with texture. The typography sits sideways (depending on your perspective, or how much you’ve had to drink) and becomes even more readable when in the ‘cellared’ position. The muted color palette compliments by conjuring notions of the underlying layers of earth that fuel the vines themselves. The Roman numeral X on the sparkling wine label, as well as all of the longer descriptive texts on the back labels, are in Fell Type.

Rebrand by Bob Beck (DesignSociety), Montréal, Canada
Product photography by Marc Montplaisir

Reserve Bordeaux format (Cabernet Sauvignon).

Reserve Burgundy Format (Pinot Noir).

Reserve Burgundy Format (Pinot Gris).

Reserve Burgundy Format (Chardonnay).

From Think Work Observe’s website:

Transcultural Collaboration is a unique international MA semester program in the arts and design, and a cooperation between seven arts universities in Asia and Europe. Thirty participants from all arts and design disciplines have the chance to explore Zurich and Hong Kong, collaborating on experiments with open outcomes.

Zurich and Hong Kong are the two main locations of the program. They serve as the matrix and common playground for explorations and experiments. The differences between Hong Kong and Zurich are huge: they provide interesting insights and opportunities for reflection on a variety of topics such as value 2019 Transcultural Collaboration systems, politics, traditions and cultural hybridization, or power structures. Every year, the program offers as well a perspective on a third city. This year (2019), the group will travel to Shanghai for a field trip that includes a public presentation at the Ming Contemporary Art Museum.

We worked on the new identity of the project proposing a typography-based layout with strong references to contemporary art and letterforms experiments. Typeface: Everett by Nolan Paparelli.

Kleinschmidt is a century-old company based in suburbs of Chicago that has historically found itself at the forefront of technological innovation. Losing face to bigger tech firms on the West Coast, One Design helped rebrand the organization to reframe its image in the eyes of young engineers. A new website and content strategy helped the company voice its perspective in a focused and meaningful manner, allowing it to compete with the competitive set.

The brand expression is a celebration of the unique quirks and charms of a tech company with roots that run over 100 years deep in the hardworking industrial midwest. It embraces midwest heritage and a hard-working ethic through typographic expression, while celebrating innovation through color palette, layout, and a unique illustration language.

A supporting geometric pattern is a direct (and functional) reference to Baudot code, a precursor to ASCII, that was crucial in Kleinschmidt’s history as a pioneer of teletype communication technology.

Separating Kleinschmidt from the Silicon Valley tech pack required embracing a visual voice completely unexpected in the space. It’s an unique company—a century of innovation nestled in the suburbs of a working class midwestern city. Ringside provides the perfect dash of heritage Americana to complement the more visually progressive color palette and illustration style that rounds out the visual expression.

The US presidential campaign of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (Democratic Party) revolves around patriotism and courage.

Navigo Bold (CSTM Fonts) is used for the campaign slogan “Brave Wins” and most headlines on the campaign website. In big sizes, the vertical cuts on diagonal strokes (R, A, V, W, S in the campaign slogan) add a striking effect. Navigo Regular is used for the website menu and footer. The condensed Alternate Gothic is used in all caps for additional headlines and some buttons, and Libre Franklin is used mostly for body copy.

Video still.

Video still.

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Doniec Górecki & Partnerzy is a law firm specializing in serving fast growing enterprises in the same sector and providing legal services for large companies and corporations.

The logo uses Nimbus Sans, URW’s version of Helvetica, with a custom ampersand and a flattened, macron-like kreska.

In 2018, Colorado-based Public Service Credit Union became Canvas Credit Union. Monigle oversaw the naming and identity design. Naming rights were also secured for Colorado State University’s new stadium, extending the identity system to Canvas Stadium.

Aglet Slab and DIN Next are used for the logotype and throughout the system. (D-DIN is used for web.) A pattern of interlocking shapes based on Aglet Slab’s serifs looks abstract at first sight, but discreetly spells out the company name.

Read more on the Becoming Canvas microsite and Monigle’s project page.

DesignThinkers is a conference put on each year by the RGD (Association of Registered Graphic Designers) in Canada. The 2018 conference in Toronto continued the theme “Speak the Truth” that was first first established at the Vancouver conference earlier in the year. The identity by Toronto-based agency Zulu Alpha Kilo centers around cheeky one-liners set in Roslindale, with supporting text in Graphik.

It’s pretty easy to tell that they had fun with this project. The event’s website is flippable, forcing users to scroll through the Toronto and Vancouver pages simultaneously, albeit in different directions. In all media, the text is usually large and usually centered, and always set black-on-white or white-on-black.

As you can see in these photos from RGD’s Flickr account, these morsels of truth could be found all over the Toronto venue: on screens, on signs, on banners, on notebooks, on t-shirts, and even on the mirrors in the bathrooms (my personal favorite application).

Jernhusen is a state-owned real estate developer. Their mission is both to maintain the current buildings along the Swedish railway system and build new commercial properties. When you are both creating legacies and maintaining existing ones, there is great need for brand clarity throughout. Jernhusen needed a unified identity and a solid foundation to build upon going forward.

Design by Söderhavet.

The Clark Partnership have set out to modernise and add credibility to the saturated yet highly specialist industry sector of retained executive search. Our approach set out to identify and articulate three guiding principles: Culture, Capability and Continuity. This emphasis forms the basis of the identity and the flow of the vernacular on the website and printed collateral. We chose oversized straight-forward, bold typography and direct messaging with a neutral colour palette to balance confidence with understatement for a fresh and unique tone of voice. Neue Haas Grotesk delivers clean and impactful legibility that fits the firm's direct and concise approach.