Arquitectura Diseño y Espacio, abbreviated to Arde, is a Peruvian architecture and design firm creating contemporary structures that have a strong sense of light and space, a preference for the geometric and often juxtapose exposed architectural surfaces with those that are natural and crafted.

Lima-based IS Creative Studio recently worked with Arde on naming and visual identity that would link a variety of assets. These included stationery, business cards, signage and a new website.

Building out from, and as an expression of name, which in Spanish means to burn like a flame (functioning as a metaphor for constant transformation and the growth of the firm), IS Creative Studio created a visual identity that expresses a sense of space, energy and architectural structure through plenty of white, a distinctive neon colour palette and geometric logotype and custom typography.

IS Creative Studio’s identity work for Arde, which can be distilled down to four key choices; type, layout, colour and finish (alongside image online), effectively plays with the spacial, the architectural, the structural and the technical.

This comes through graphically in the geometric and pixel-pushed forms and angles of the logotype, its implementation as both solid fill and outline versions, the use of grids, the framing of empty space (see the business cards), a practical, geometric and monolinear secondary type choice, and an animation that makes the logotype look loosely like it is being drawn by a plotter.

This is also expressed in physical form with the choices of tactile uncoated surfaces, the robust nature of heavy boards and the light and shade you get from a blind emboss and extruded signage.

Like many good brand identities, this one balances a familiar and understandable set of conventions, those that are clearly tied to architecture and related disciplines, with something a little more unusual. This comes in the form of a high visibility fluorescent green, red and yellow. These very loosely tie in with the name and its metaphorical ideation, draw to mind highvis jackets of construction sites and delivers impact and distinction where you often see a preference for black and white, warm and cool greys. More from IS Creative Studio on BP&O.

Design: IS Creative Studio. Opinion: Richard Baird. Fonts Used: Px Grotesk.