Investigating Decentralized Action in Art was designed for Baltan Laboratories, a cultural institution based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

The publication is the result of ARTeCHÓ, a European initiative connecting five institutions to support artists exploring art, crypto art, blockchain, and NFTs. It explores how AI and NFTs intersect with art, economy, and politics, questioning their sustainability and equity.

Through essays and artworks, the book challenges centralized systems, colonial legacies, and extractive capitalism, proposing decentralized, autonomous alternatives for a fairer digital future and new forms of collective knowledge and creativity. It was edited by Marlou van der Cruijsen, Lorenzo Gerbi, and Julia Kassyk, and published by Lecturis.

The design is built upon the concept of digital brutalism, to recall the material foundation (the hardware) that sustains any software. Harber and ABC Monument Grotesk, along the material qualities of the book, contribute in creating such “digital-brutalist” aesthetic.

CRSL also designed the visual identity of the related exhibition Decentralized Futures, held at Koelhuis in Eindhoven, during Dutch Design Week 2024, see this previous post.

Justified Studio crafted the brand identity for Native, a next-generation investment platform designed to empower creators, entrepreneurs, and communities. The branding translates Native’s vision of financial inclusivity and innovation into a bold and distinctive visual language.

Typography plays a crucial role in this identity. Ginka (from Lift Type), with its sharp, expressive forms, is used for impactful statements, reinforcing the brand’s forward-thinking nature. It is complemented by Affairs (from SM Foundry), a refined and elegant serif typeface that adds a sense of trust and editorial clarity. This contrast between experimental and classic typefaces mirrors Native’s balance between disruptive technology and credibility in the financial sector.

Studio Size designed a visual identity for Web3 Tales, a conference by Alice In Blockchains featuring some of the world’s brightest minds in Web3. The goal was to create an identity that reflects the event’s forward-thinking nature and generates excitement. Our approach centered on motion design, seamlessly integrating it with the core branding elements. Inspired by UI elements and Web3 interactivity, we developed a look that is both futuristic and engaging.

The bold color palette is not just visually appealing but also symbolic of the vibrant and transformative nature of Web3 technology. For the event, we designed wayfinding signage, print materials, social media templates, keynotes, and fun giveaway items like wearables and stickers.

Galxe is a decentralized super app and the largest on-chain distribution platform in Web3. Gravity by Galxe is an omnichannel smart contract platform. It delivers a more efficient, scalable, and secure mechanism for managing complex cross-chain interactions with minimal friction.

Galxe and Gravity utilize three custom-named upright styles of Lader (Regular, Medium, and SemiBold) throughout their websites and applications. Initially conceived as a typeface for web usage, Lader works excellently in both app and mobile interfaces. Selected text items are set in all caps Roboto Mono.

Decentralized Futures was a design exhibition by Baltan Laboratories, shown at Koelhuis District Eindhoven furing Dutch Design Week 2024:

Decentralized Futures exhibition explores the creative possibilities of blockchain and NFTs in digital art. Showcasing the work of eight international artists, the exhibition delves into the future of decentralized technologies and their impact on the art market. Emerging from the ARTeCHÓ project, co-funded by the EU, the works highlight how NFTs provide uniqueness to digital creations and move beyond traditional frameworks. The exhibition examines themes of decentralization, redistribution, and new modes of socio-political organization, offering a glimpse into how these technologies could help shape a more equitable and inclusive future.

Baltan Laboratories is a cultural and interdisciplinary lab based in Eindhoven. CRSL’s design for the exhibition and collateral such as posters and social media used Harber (by bb-bureau) in variable font format, exploring many of its stylistic possibilities. The supporting sans is Dinamo’s ABC Monument Grotesk.

Atlas is a blockchain Layer 2 designed to provide high-performance De-Fi applications with the performance of Solana at Ethereum scale. By combining the performance of traditional finance with the transparency of De-Fi, Atlas is bringing about a new financial world.

To bring the feeling of possibility from Atlas’ brand strategy to the brand identity and web design, Slope Agency created illustrations of a world of exploration and boundlessness. Atlas is moving toward the future of decentralized finance, with the tools and guidance to get there. Slope reflected this concept in Atlas’ new logo, its design helping to balance the more futuristic illustrations. The wordmark uses a humanistic serif, and their submark, a circular compass embedded with a star has historical roots; its globe-like shape is a nod to Atlas of Greek mythology, and its details an allusion to guidance tools like atlases and the North Star. In this way, this visual system brings in historical representations of agency with relation to uncharted landscapes, and pairs them with a sense of innovation.

The brand typefaces are Messina Sans and Messina Serif. The wordmark is a custom design.

See the full case study on Slope Agency’s website.

Motorverse, the motorsport Web3 platform developed by blockchain-based gaming company Animoca Brands, aims to establish a genuine community for racing enthusiasts. It serves as the digital hub for motorsport, offering a sense of ownership and the thrill of racing, while providing a space for growth, connection, and development.

At its heart is the Motorverse Heartbeat—representing the varying speeds and rhythms that drive our passion for racing and energize our community’s fervor.

Kenshō Agency's identity for Solar Labs utilises a modification of Laif (New Letters) for the brand logotype, alongside extensive use of both HK Grotesk (Hanken Design Co) and Georgia Pro (Carter & Cone) throughout brand deliverables and communications.

Solar Labs' mission is to bring innovative web3 ideas to life, both for self initiated projects and client led briefs alike. The company strives to be as transparent as possible; providing secure and reliable solutions for web and product development, smart contracts and KYC services.

Modulus is using specialized ZK to bring AI on-chain. As intelligent algorithms become more common online, Modulus is using cryptography to keep them accountable and ensure that results are verifiable.

For Modulus, the math that makes AI verification possible inspired Slope Agency’s creation of their new visuals. Motion drives graphics that add, subtract, multiply, and divide. These shapes and forms are pixelated and dynamic, a visual representation of AI models. They exist within an overarching gridded system that brings a sense of straightforwardness that reflects Modulus’ work to keep AI honest.

The pixelated graphics create an endlessly flexible system, as does a color palette based around black, white, and a suite of grays. And, strong navy and a vibrant cyan add an element of play when desired.

In designing Modulus’ website, Slope leaned into the gridded structures of our brand identity work and paired it with an experimental horizontal layout. In web development we created a gentle horizontal movement framework that allows the pixelated graphics to fade, stretch, and transform. The element of pixelation even carries into the type page markers to create a cohesive visual. Together the UI feels streamlined, interactive, and refreshing.

The brand typefaces are ABC Diatype and Px Grotesk Screen. Gellix served as the base for the wordmark.

See the full case study on Slope Agency’s website.

In the ever-evolving world of blockchain, knowledge gaps continue to exist. Viction stands apart as a company that “prioritizes the dissemination of information and education”. The platform sees blockchain as a means to positive impact by enabling and empowering human potential through heightened accessibility, education, and community building.

Viction entrusted Rice to name and give identity to the layer-1 blockchain and position the company as a platform propelling human stories, in a technology-centric market. A result of vision and victory—the name Viction emerges.

The identity centers on establishing Viction as a “Platform for Potential”, utilizing imagery of people flourishing on the foundation of a powerful platform. The Viction logo is this platform, on top of which storytelling, and a literary approach to type and layout, set off true stories and use-cases. Adopting EB Garamond pays homage to the humanistic values derived from traditional book culture, while the selective use of Neue Haas Grotesk adds a modern counterpoint, allowing for a broad spectrum of expression.

[More info about Viction on Rice]

Zora Zine is a media platform made by and for cultural communities utilizing blockchain. Zora Zine Print Issue 001 is a 250-page catalog of luminaries, featuring more than 60 visionary contributors from across the epochal cycles of online culture. Wednesday Studio led the art direction and chose Lucas Sharp’s Ogg with Rasmus Andersson’s Inter throughout the design.

About the print issue they say:

We publish in the DIY spirit of the fanzine to document, distribute, and catalyze the voices of the digital avant-garde. We operate beyond “the intersection of culture and technology,” actively encouraging agonistic discourse between technologists and artists, believers and skeptics, previous and future generations.

About the online publication they follow a special mantra: thinking thematically rather
than topically, crystallizing weak signals into legible wholes, and want to be the curation layer of global hyperculture. They explain believing that technologies are defined by the cultures that run on them.

Zine is a compendium for the complex analysis of Web3 and the proliferation of new cultural formulations within and outside of its direct sphere of influence. Our goal is to diversify the participants in Web3 discourse as much as possible while unifying the intention, expression, and quality of the discussion.

Story Protocol is reimagining storytelling. When creators seek to build a narrative universe, they must choose between the limitations of a publisher, or the uncertainty of independence. Utilizing web3 allows Story Protocol to realize the potential of the next great narrative universe, with a future of networked IP development where creativity operates on open-source principles with ownership rights and economic incentives built in.

Slope Agency worked with Story Protocol from brand strategy through brand identity and web design to craft a system that honors the history of storytelling while conveying the excitement of a new era of narratives. 3D designs with textures and shapes inspired by letterforms and different genres—like mythology, fantasy, and science fiction—help to visually represent this shift from past to future.

At its core, Story Protocol is building open infrastructure that allows creators to collaboratively build narrative universes in a new era of storytelling. Slope designed a bold and geometric logomark reminiscent of building blocks and inspired by the collaboration and co-creation possible on the protocol. Within the mark, and in the 3D animations showcased on through the website design, there is an acknowledgment that all pieces of a narrative universe hold meaning and power in shaping a story, fitting together to create something impactful.

The brand typefaces are Reckless Neue and Acronym. ABC Diatype served as the base for the wordmark.

See the full case study on Slope Agency's website.

Studio Size created a brand identity for Metalabs3, a blockchain and Web3 development company. ML3’s identity revolves around the idea of a “digital renaissance”. The real Renaissance was a period from the 14th to 17th century that brought innovation by combining science and art. Web3 represents a “digital renaissance”, a rebirth of web technology impacting numerous areas, particularly art. To illustrate the concept of “digital renaissance”, we merged Greek and Roman culture from the old Renaissance world with the new digital age of the metaverse. The logo is built from ancient pillars, forming the roman number three and symbolizing the letter M. By applying pixel graphics, gradients, glitches, and blur effects, we created an exciting contrast with the archaic visual elements.

The design system is based on the golden ratio, specific to renaissance art. The contrast of serif and sans serif typefaces represents a fusion of the old and new world. Motion design reinterprets archaic visuals in a digital context. With 3D models, the Renaissance sculptures are placed in a metaverse-like environment.

Journalist Andrey Zakharov researched the ethics and aesthetics of blockchain technology for many years and authored an investigative piece into the theft of $400 million from a cryptocurrency exchange. The investigation was published as Крипта (“Crypto”) by publishing house Individuum. The cover text is set in Quattrocode and Transgender Grotesk.

Koris is an all-in-one platform offering web3-enabled tools for DAOs, web3 companies, and web2 businesses to progressively decentralise and manage business operations on-chain. For typography, Px Grotesk by Optimo and Reckless by Displaay were selected. These typefaces have differing personalities, but similar x-heights, making them cohesive and harmonious—much like a vibrant workplace. For art direction, pixel icons of various office objects, symbols, and gestures are interspersed in between text to accentuate the idea of the work(space).

The wordmark is based on Stabil Grotesk.

Melbourne-based agency Love + Money designed the identity and website of Altr, using Kaftan Serif by Victor Bartis and Söhne (incl. Söhne Mono) by Klim Type Foundry.

From Poppy Thaxter’s review for The Brand Identity:

From ‘decentralised autonomous organisation’ Lucidao, Altr is the world’s first luxury collectable marketplace transacted on the blockchain; aiming to bridge the gap between the physical and digital luxury spaces. Being the first of its kind, it was in need of a showstopping identity; courtesy of international digital creative agency Love + Money. […]

[Creative Director Danny Pemberton comments:] “Altr allows collectors to move their assets between the physical and digital worlds – in a very real sense, upping the ante on the traditional idea of financial liquidity. For this reason, liquidity was the central direction of the brand’s 3D imagery giving a moment of twilight where it's perhaps not immediately clear if what you’re looking at is analogue or digital.”

Altr’s running theme of fluidity also extends into the colour selection. “What does a real-life Ferrari look like if it’s been converted into a digital token?” Pemberton asks. “We started playing with light and dark palettes as a way of representing these two states, and then our friends at someform took these explorations to another level with their 3D work.

Söhne was chosen for the headline and body text for its well-cut, classic and versatile qualities, with the logomark set in Kaftan Serif, perfectly suited with its fluid letterforms.

Yapari and Monorama is used by Quai Network, a set of EVM-compatible blockchains that achieve 50k+ tps without compromising decentralization.

In November 2022, Serpentine Gallery published the third volume of their Future Art Ecosystems trilogy, themed “Art x Decentralised Tech”. The publication features interviews with over 40 specialists across art, web3, crypto, dweb, innovation policy and civic, to investigate possibilities for a more interoperable vision for 21st-century infrastructure.

Designed by Eva Jäger and Roxy Zeiher, with artwork by Harm van den Dorpel. Apoc by Blaze Type is used throughout.

The European Blockchain Center is a globally leading institution that conducts research and education on blockchain-based systems and solutions. Based at the IT University of Copenhagen, the research is not only about cryptocurrencies, but also about the influence of blockchain technology on business processes, administration and self-determined communities.

Together with Il-Ho Jung and the European Blockchain Center, made in defined brand values, worked out mission and vision and finally transferred the brand profile into a brand design. The result is a contemporary, but also appropriate design for the field of research, which provides scope: It can appear strikingly bold but also restrained – depending on the intended use. The brand consists of a family of brands united by a visual bracket. The first sub-brand is the "Blockchain Masterclass", or "BMC" for short, a course for executive leaders.

Garnett designed by Connor Davenport and distributed by Sharp Type is the only typeface used for the EBC graphic guidelines and for the logo design. Its overall austere character is opposed to its quirky flavor of its curves.

New website for New Form Capital designed by Reform Collective using TWK Lausanne, Editorial New and Mondwest.