Save the date announcement, referencing famous logotypes set in Futura

New Identities (or ⓝє? Ɨｄεη丅??ίẸ?) was the first encounter of the recurring festival on visual communication at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 14, 2023.

The festival ends a course on identity design with the third-year students at the program, led by senior lecturer Peter Ström, and exhibited work by all students at the department parallel to the main program: lectures by Other Means (US), Sangha Shin of Formless Twins (SK/NL), Göran Söderström & Stefania Malmsten (SE), as well as a panel on visual identity in Swedish music, with Victor Svedberg of Year0001, Anna Sagström of Country Music, Viktor Hammarberg, and moderator Lisa Ehlin.

The festival’s visual identity was designed by me, Peter Ström of Konst & Teknik, one of the initiators of the festival and part of the faculty at the school.

It takes its departure in the current visual identity of Beckmans, designed by Henrik Nygren in 2008 and especially its extensive use of the typeface Futura. The visual identity is often debated within the program as some frustration sometimes is voiced due to its modernistic and minimal black-and-white-lowercase-only use might communicate the opposite of the vibrant and visually exciting work that takes place on inside the school.

The solution is a more maximalist approach by using every other version of Futura but the one used by Beckmans available to me.

The result is a visual identity that is an expressive mashup of design history, referencing everything from local and international usages of that very typeface, via its designer Paul Renner’s early sketches from 1926 and digitized versions rooted in the 1960s to ultra modern reinterpretations.

The identity has been further developed into everything from T-shirts, laser engraved bricks (!), a signage system, and other things by the students over the weeks leading up to the festival.

Photo by Jonas Hemlin.

Poster and Instagram story-announcement

The announcement treatment was later turned into “logotypes” for each lecturer, with a hint of their geographical location: Other Means from the US referring to FedEx.

Sangah Shin / Formless Twins from South Korea and the Netherlands referencing the global brand Gillette

Stefania Malmstren & Göran Söderström from Sweden referring to local grocery store Ica Supermarket.

The panel on music and visual identity referenced Absolute Vodka and their use of a custom Futura (because you know... booze).

Social media announcement

Collage of units produced by Peter and the students: photoshopped Futura products for and on a T-shirt by Mauritz Larsson and Caroline Hallersjö, afterparty invite by Linnea Arminda Birkelund, signage system by Andreas Rehnberg

A Challenge from Sweden is an initiative of Energimyndigheten (the Swedish State Energy Agency), which sorts under the Ministry of the Environment and Energy.

Sweden has committed itself to the long-term goal of reducing carbon pollution.
Through the initiative A Challenge from Sweden, the Swedish Energy Agency promotes challenge driven innovation to accelerate the shift towards a zero carbon growth economy.

Its brand identity has been created by the design agency Söderhavet. A Challenge from Sweden needed to have its own brand and design system in relation to the national brand of Sweden, and to clarify its mission to its stakeholders. The core elements of the identity (colours, grid, logostructure/sender system) derive from Sweden’s brand identity. This also includes the typeface, Sweden Sans.

The main theme is energy, both as a resource and as a force that is driving change. The brand identity creates a systematic scheme for A Challenge from Sweden and its different thematic sub-initiatives. Find more information about the project here.

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.

Brand identity for Filmstaden (formerly known as SF Bio), Sweden’s biggest cinema chain, featuring a custom typeface family in 3 weights named Filmstaden Sans and a layered display version.

An experience designed to evoke big emotions demands a lot from the identity of those delivering that experience. A lot of thought, craft and ingenuity is required. Independent of communication channels, components such an identity has to be scalable and flexible.

By close collaboration with the client, the details and conceptual thought have led the way to the end result. And the result works for all touch points as it creates clarity, consistence, emotion and recognition.

Design by Söderhavet.

Design which reflects the heart and soul of a country is essential when branding an entire nation. We approached this challenge with simplicity and accuracy, using sustainability as a driving force.

A cohesive, strategic yet practical brand identity program was created for the Council for the Promotion of Sweden (Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Visit Sweden, Business Sweden and the Swedish Institute). This is a brand identity that needs to unify the organizations as well as clearly represent each individual institution when communicating Sweden abroad.

The identity includes a custom typeface named Sweden Sans. It comes in 4 styles; Light, Regular, Bold, and the Arabic version. Old road signs, monospaced fonts, classic sans serifs and Scandinavian design influenced and inspired us in the design process.

Design by Söderhavet.

Visit Sweden is a website with travel info.

Sweden.se is the official site of Sweden.

Soil biology is a urban gardening and environmental aware soil brand. The graphic expression is clean and straightforward in order to make the product easy to understand when consumers find it at unexpected retailers and places.

So Ray is a quirky modern grotesque family made by So-Type and released in 2018.
Soil Biology identity uses So Ray in its Bold weight and the So Ray mono in its unmono cut.

Design by Söderhavet.

Seasonal Affective is a tongue-in-cheek brew for those of us who need a little help celebrating the great outdoors during gloomy winters. The symmetrical layout pays homage to WPA national parks posters, and the subtle use of Clarendon is reminiscent of park signage.

DavidsTea is a Canadian specialty tea and tea accessory retailer based in Montreal, Quebec. The brand design by Eva Wilsson pairs all-lowercase Oxtail Black with Omnes Light.