A’18 by Pentagram
Posted: January 7, 2019 Filed under: Architecture and The Built Environment, Graphic Design Reviews | Tags: American Design, Brand Identity, Brand Identity Reviews, Branding, Branding Blog, Branding Reviews, Design Blog, Design For Print, Design News, Design Opinion, Design Reviews, Designed by Pentagram, Form Language, Graphic Design, Graphic Design Blog, Logo Design & Branding Blog, Logo Design Inspiration, Logo Design Resource, Logo Designs, Logo Opinion, Logotypes, Natasha Jen, The Best Graphic Design Work of 2018, The Best Logo Designs of 2018, The Very Best Brand Identities of 2018, The Very Best of 2018, Typography, Women of Design, Wordmark Design Comments Off on A’18 by PentagramOpinion by Richard Baird
AIA Conference on Architecture is an annual three-day event that explores what is new and now in architecture and design. In 2018 this took place between June 21st and 23rd at Manhattan’s Javits Center, a pioneering modernist space frame structure designed by architect James Ingo Freed. The event is made up of workshops, seminars and city tours across the five boroughs of New York City as well keynotes from those working within the fields of both architecture and design who spoke of their approaches to making a difference to cities across the globe.
Pentagram partner Natasha Jen and team developed the visual identity for A’18, building on the graphic identity developed for AIA, also designed by Pentagram. This captures the vibrancy and life of the city, and the idiosyncrasies of its diverse neighbourhoods. This linked the welcome desk with takeaway assets that included tote bags, Metro Cards and city map.
The Best of BP&O — December 2018
Posted: December 31, 2018 Filed under: The Best of BP&O Comments Off on The Best of BP&O — December 2018Selected by Richard Baird.
November’s highlights included Studio South’s graphic identity for property development opportunity Outline, The Studio’s work for Brilliant and Metric’s graphic identity for Vega Scene. There were, however, five projects that stood out and have made it into BP&O’s Best Of Series. Between them, these typically balance a strong singular concept or an appropriate confluence of ideas with a compelling visual character and clear communicative intention that appropriately play with form, colour, type and layout, as well as material, texture, image and print finish.
BP&O, in this end of month review, tries to recognise both the smart use of small budgets—those that channel spending into the most appropriate assets—and those projects with a broad and holistic quality, establishing a continuity (conceptual and/or visual) across multiple touch points. Many of the projects share a concise aesthetic expression, yet there is nuance and strategic weight to these, so do click through and read more about each of these.
The Best of BP&O — Logos of 2018
Posted: December 28, 2018 Filed under: The Best of BP&O Comments Off on The Best of BP&O — Logos of 2018Selected by Richard Baird.
As brand identity programmes become increasingly more sophisticated, as sound, touch and smell become folded into this experience, communicative weight has eased off of the logo. This has seen the logo become increasingly marginalised and the logotype stylistically ubiquitous. However, the mobile screen and signage, the bookmark and the supergraphic, where these multi-sensory tools are unavailable, are spaces in which a smart logo can function, building an association, utilising memorability and developing an immediate recognition. Highlights in 2018 included Commission’s monogram for Rimowa, Nunchi by Bedow and Enter Arkitektur by Ragged Edge.
This post, the last of five—also check out Packaging of 2018, Graphic Identities of 2018, Books and Magazines of 2018 and Studios of 2018, features techniques such as playful allusions, a sequential out-of-the-box quality, a smile in the mind moment, and an adaptive and invitational container for custom type and different languages. These draw a visual and communicative value from simple graphic gestures and used within both large and small-scale identity programmes and projects.
