In 2024, Boston’s landmark World Trade Center was transformed into Commonwealth Pier, a property owned by Pembroke in the heart of the city’s rapidly evolving Seaport District.

The location offers unprecedented access to the city’s waterfront, accessible from all areas of the city. It required a contemporary visual identity program that would celebrate the property, honor its legacy, and connect with audiences from across the region.

One Design created Seaport Sans, a family of modular display typefaces inspired by the architecture of the campus properties.

SSPier takes inspiration from turn-of-the-century architectural elements found throughout the pier structure that stretches out into Boston Harbor. The building has industrial origins, originally functioning as a railway shipping hub. The bespoke modular typeface draws inspiration from the ornate trusses and columns unearthed during its renovation.

SSHotel and SSTower are variants that embrace decorative architectural motifs from the newer hotel and office tower properties found on the mainland.

Staff Wide from R-Typography is used throughout the system as a functional anchor, embracing its no-nonsense, utilitarian aesthetic to link the property’s communal future with its functional roots in Boston’s industrial past.

The color palette exists in harmony with the tones of the Atlantic Ocean and the broader eastern seaboard.

Branding applications for the Seaport Hotel, a hospitality destination on the Commonwealth Pier campus

Commonwealth Pier social media

Construction barrier signage for Pembroke Properties, utilized during property renovations

Seaport Sans extensions for campus wayfinding and iconography

Historical research into the property’s industrial roots revealed structural patterns, that served as visual influence for Seaport Sans.

Seaport Sans, a modular display typeface inspired by the industrial trusses found throughout Commonwealth Pier during renovation

Seaport Sans: a modular display typeface for the Commonwealth Pier property and campus

Seaport Sans, in all of its modular expressive glory

Unique variants of Seaport Sans were developed for adjacent properties on the campus. Architectural elements of each building inspired the variants, such as the circular motif found on the exterior of the Seaport Hotel.

Seaport Sans Hotel (SSHotel), inspired by the architectural motifs found on the exterior of the Seaport Hotel.

Various applications featuring SSHotel

Seaport Hotel applications

Collaborating with Chicago’s famed Merchandise Mart and BIFMA (the trade association for business and institutional furniture manufacturers), One Design developed a positioning strategy and brand system for Confluence Chicago™, a new programming track for NeoCon 2020 (now slated to 2021) focused on bringing together creative practitioners from across multiple modes of design.

The creative process can be mysterious. But peek below the surface, and you’ll find universal truths that unite us all—unexpected lessons to be learned, unique perspectives to be shared, and novel approaches to be taken that could benefit us all.

Confluence Chicago™ is a three-day creative summit that allows participants to connect across creative industries and design disciplines to discover, explore, and find inspiration in the common threads that unite our work.

A vibrant, fresh, and contemporary design system was developed to attract and connect with a younger audience—pulling away from the corporate traditions of NeoCon’s past. A bespoke, modular typeface rounded out the system—embracing the concept of unification across multiple modes of creative practice to create surprising, unexpected results.

Type specimen for Elbow Sans.