The “active and focused research” and cross-disciplinary approach of Mourmans Nypels Architecture And Design is beautifully realised through the intersection and layering of multiple paths into a focused point and coherent whole....
Storefront for Art and Architecture is an independent not-for-profit art and architecture organisation, located in New York’s Soho, dedicated to advancing architecture, art and design. To further this remit the organisation developed the New York Architecture Book Fair, an event and platform that brings together authors, designers, publishers, critics and readers to consider, through a programme of discussion, installation and pop-ups,...
New Architecture in South Tyrol—a travelling exhibition and catalogue—brings to light the unique architectural boom happening in Alto Adige, also known as South Tyrol, the predominantly German-speaking northern-most province of Italy. Selected by an international jury, the catalogue focuses on fifty-nine buildings from the region, realised between 2012–2018, and have gained local contemporary architects international recognition. These buildings are marked by...
The Architecture Division of the California College of the Arts (CCA) is an internationally recognised leader in architecture and interior design education. Its programs, which focus on digital technologies and material systems, design research and urban agency, were developed to prepare students for creative practice where material innovation and formal experimentation meet social engagement and cultural collaboration. CCA Architecture strives to...
Lundén Architecture Company is a Helsinki-based design studio developing innovative structures, infrastructures and spaces. The studio, through their knowledge of strategic development, experimental building technology and urban design, drawn from their collaborations with experts from different fields, offer proposals that affect the future of the built environment. Projects have included a new school and community complex that inspires learning during...
Verso is a small Auckland-based architecture and interiors business working within the residential and commercial sectors. Drawing on the oppositional nature of name and using a mix of simple typographical form, high-quality materials and print finish Studio South developed a new visual identity for Verso that is described as being both sophisticated and playful, whilst effectively working in some universal architectural principles. This links a variety of printed...
SISU was a symposium that took place in the summer of 2014 in the city of Tallinn. Organised by The Estonian Society of Interior Architects it was a place were recognised theoreticians and practitioners from Europe, Australia and Estonia met to discuss Dynamics of Theory and Practice within the field of interior architecture. The symposium’s identity, designed by AKU, leverages many...
O Architecture is a small, Lille-based multidisciplinary studio whose practices extend beyond traditional architectural services to include artistic installations, educational courses and editorial work. Their visual identity, ‘a solid circle with a disruption that creates a triangle reminiscent of an A’ – created by design agency Heydays – , unites the broad remit of the studio under a simple symbol with a revolving, holistic quality that...
Architecture PLB is a design-led practice working across both the public and private sectors with offices in Winchester and London. Their new brand identity, designed by communications agency Sea, unites the three dimensional aspect of the architectural world and a sense of sculptural creativity with a gradated ‘A’ logomark and the utility and corporate neutrality of a well-spaced, light grey san serif...
The once laudable claim to have started a thriving business with ‘a small loan’ from a doting family member may have been muddied beyond recognition by the truth-stretching of serial tax-offender and part-time Presidential candidate Donald Trump. Despite this, turning ‘one thousand pounds from nan’ into a luxury watch and diamond dealership with a sparkling flagship store in Mayfair remains...
It’s all well and good for a design agency to make some wild, boundary-pushing, all-singing all-dancing work for things like Gen Z healthcare products; or ‘top shelf’ spirits; or craft beer. But most client projects aren’t going to be the sort of thing that merits bright orange and typography that dances around the boundaries of legibility. And arguably, it’s those...
The Beams is ‘an expansive new venue and event space on the Royal Docks in the heart of East London’ (that’s as long as you prefer your cartography loosely impressionist). Manchester-based Only Studio was tasked with branding the former Tate & Lyle sugar factory. The award-winning agency has previous form in the field of London industrial-eyesores-turned-cultural-juggernauts: it was also responsible...
It is fair to say that rebrands of music organisations, of which there have been a number in the past few years, have benefitted from the recent explosion of graphic design into the world of sound and motion. Music has always inspired other forms of art, but these new digital tools are uniquely suited for producing design solutions for these...
In the words of synesthete Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, ‘music is liquid architecture; architecture is frozen music’. Unlike 19th-century architecture, contemporary graphic design is afforded no such static reprieve – it faces the challenge of animating the ‘universal language’. Whereas once the plastic arts could content themselves with merely freezing music, any contemporary attempt to visually translate music must now...
Ostro isn’t the easiest of companies to make sense of. Billed as a ‘life science software company’, it straddles a number of different services that are both consumer and clinician-facing. In simple terms, though, it looks to help consumers and healthcare providers alike to navigate the complex, labyrinthine ins and outs of the complex US healthcare system; using software to...
When my partner and I first moved to London in 2014, surviving on scarcely more than minimum wage, it obviously seemed like a sensible idea to rent in Hampstead. We’d heard of the Heath, and were familiar with the Northern Line. The flat, apparently once a Sex Pistols’ squat, was tiny and hadn’t improved much since the 70s. Back then...
The competitive landscape for experiences has been significantly catalysed post-pandemic. Perhaps the sensory deprivation of stay-at-home orders created an intense need to make up for lost time, indulge in all manner of out-of-home activities and platform them. Times have changed. Old needs to feel new and fight on equal footing with what appears to be an endless stream of pop-up...
Every year an impressive 40,000 humpback whales travel along the Sydney coastline. This annual migration pattern is one of the many awe-inspiring natural spectacles that make the city so unique. It is fitting then, that the New Sydney Waterfront Company chose to revitalise Sydney’s Western Harbour Precinct with an installation of thirty whale tail sculptures, telling thirty individual stories, or...
‘The story of the internet is the story of life’. Understood in this way, rebranding Malaysia’s challenger internet service provider Time presented the appropriately existentially titled For the People with a daunting task. As legislation in Malaysia shifted, requiring companies like Time to share their infrastructure with other ISPs, competition has grown. As such, Time needed to evolve its brand. What is...
A visual identity just as Instagrammable as the ‘the world’s most Instagrammed cake’. Sydney bakery Black Star Pastry has been on the ascendancy, from local pastry maker to global cult status, racking up millions of views, thousands of loyal followers and generating hype around its ‘original cakes woven together with poetic storytelling’. Working with Japanese illustrator Noritake, (known for his...
Triboro worked on its first restaurant branding project over a decade ago, at a time when the folklore was that if you were a restaurant serving traditional food the visual language should evoke the region and time period of the cuisine. This was intuitive and, as Triboro founder David Heasty recounts, led to some well-crafted and beautiful results but often leaned...
After the scientific successes of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (and its blessed failure to create any world-destroying black holes), the research organisation has an even greater need for speed. The team of scientists over in Geneva has been illuminating the nature of our universe since 2009: accelerating and smashing particles together, then snatching glimpses of their tiny collisions. Their appetite...
In case you’ve missed it, low and no-alcohol drinks are a thing. With over 20% of adults in the UK claiming to be teetotal, abstinence is cool: Brewdog is now Punk AF (that’s ‘alcohol free’), Thomson & Scott’s Noughty is (fairly) nice, and Seedlip is sexy. This sobriety revolution is driven, in part, by the mindfully sceptical Gen Z, turned...
Design-savvy duo and father and son team Dylan and Frank worked alongside Gary Todd Architecture and interior design team INDYK Architects to develop Ebb, a contemporary boutique hotel located at the heart of Dunedin, a city on the South Island of New Zealand. Ebb is uniquely situated at the edge of the reclaimed Otago Harbour–a place where Polynesian travellers would...