Peerspace by Mother Design
Straight up, I’ll admit that I struggle to resist a condensed sans typeface set in uppercase. I’ll also confess that I’ve spent the last hour (no lie), trying to identify this one… Helvetica? Hell no. Railroad Gothic? The wrong track. Söhne? Sö not. Must be Knockout? Another blow. For Druk’s sake is it Druk? Well, whatever it is, it’s neatly...
Eager by Ragged Edge
The visual ‘territories’ of design and the strategic routes of marketing and advertising run in cycles, parallel to consumer culture. Ideas that fall by the wayside one decade are rediscovered, remixed or recycled in another. Challenger brands grow, take on the established and are either acquired, expire or, sometimes, find a sweet spot for growth that allows them to remain true...
Tembo by Perky Bros
When I first caught Perky Bros’ latest project I misread it as ‘Tempo’, the speed at which music is played. Timing is everything, or so it is said. For real estate company Tembo this notion takes the form of patience; the time to grow gently and judiciously. Property development, momentarily paused during the pandemic, seems to have recovered and is again...
LogoArchive Ukraine
In 2020 LogoArchive started to roll out a research programme, inviting international designers to use the platform to share the works of their countries, with a special interest in those who have been previously under-represented. This included nations in the Middle East, East Asia and Eastern Europe. Since then, the LogoArchive Instagram accounts have continually surprised and delighted. One of...
Eadem by Lotta Nieminen
The skincare industry is a varied visual landscape. At one end of the spectrum, brands like Glossier and Soft Services (reviewed July 2022) have found balance in softness and understated minimalism. At the other Dr.Jart+ (reviewed Jan. 2018) and Malin+Goetz bring pharmacy-chic with functional, type-led packaging. And then we have our classic, heritage brands – like Kiehl’s and Elizabeth Arden – which...
Jupiter by Triboro
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...
Unto by Studio Bergini
Five years ago, the discerning and culinary-minded were content with their everyday Waitrose Essential Extra Virgin Olive Oil. But now – as with wine – there is increasing awareness that the taste of oil is individual, depending on olive variety, soil type, climate, cultivation method, and a host of other factors. From The River Café’s hotly anticipated annual pressing to...
The Wool Pot by Seachange Studio
More plants, less plastic. A noble mission. Over the last decade, revelation has followed revelation with regards to the environmental impact of what seemed like the most innocuous of objects. Now it’s the turn of the humble flower pot. Yep, that. Stacked and sitting empty in the shed, or at the bottom of the garden. It turns out that these...
LBDO by Universal Favourite
Self-care is nothing new, but our understanding and appreciation of it as a society has grown enormously in the last half century, and especially recently when it became a trending topic during the isolation periods of coronavirus in 2020 and 2021 (70 million hashtags on Instagram, and counting). In the dawn of this enlightened thinking, products in this space have...
HUB Residential by DNCO
Property development continues to boom in London. It’s difficult to see how any of this is really benefitting those most in need, or whether housing is even being designed to be resided in at this point, acting as a ‘store of value’ for those much wealthier individuals. Recently developed areas appear like ghost towns at night. Having just moved, and...
Sing King by Nomad
I’m going to break with a decade of convention and jump right in. I love this. I was sold as soon as I saw the logo, it’s in the BP&O Gallery. It’s rare you see this kind of logo today. It’s mostly, and understandably, logotypes that prevail today. Those that are striped down to function well on multiple devices. Blanding?...
Thomas Demand: The Complete Papers
A catalogue raisonné is a massive undertaking. It is defined, by the New York Public Library, as a ‘comprehensive, annotated listing of all the known works of an artist either in a particular medium or all media’. The Catalogue Raisonné Scholars Association adds that their members ‘typically research a single artist’s body of work to establish a reliable list of...
Future Factory by Dutchscot
‘Lead generation for creative agencies’. It’s one of those lines that makes complete sense to some but sounds like gobbledigook to everyone else. ‘Lead generation’ is a general mystery, unless your job depends on it. And what is a creative agency after all? But of course, so far as branding is concerned, ‘everyone else’ really doesn’t matter. Hitting the spot...
Baseline by Garbett
‘There’s better ways to build’ is Baseline’s opening gambit on its landing page. And Surrey Hills-based Garbett worked with the government and commercial builder to bring this and its core values of simplicity, precision, clarity and transparency to life. ‘Every successful build needs the right foundation’. This notion is expressed through a single unit that expands and grows into a dynamic system of blocks, not quite...
Skateyogi by Order
The skateboarding learning curve is really defined by the individual. There are lessons (passed down or shared online), but much of it is practice (and patience). Further, and perhaps more importantly, skateboarding is expressive, it’s fused with personal style. Timeless tricks are given an individual twist that keep it evolving and competitive. Iconic skateboarding brands have grown out of the...
Detour Beer Co. by Weave
Craft beer has become a hugely competitive market to enter. It seems a rather obvious thing to write, but it’s quite something to have been part of the generation that saw its rise. It’s also provided a lot of great imagery for design blogs, and moved freely between both brand building and just plain visual delight. To see large fridges within...
NN North Sea Jazz Festival by Studio Dumbar/DEPT
After seeing Collins’ work for the San Francisco Symphony – a pioneering typographic and digital experiment with Swiss foundry Dinamo – I thought it would be some time before I’d be surprised by another visual identity in the music space. Sure, there’s an abundance of styles and artists to be inspired by within an art that has evolved in tandem...
Future Circular Collider by Bleed
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...
Citroen
Citreon returns to the past, drawing on its heritage to position itself better for the future. No surprises in terms of strategy, they’re all doing it, but practically it makes sense. The limitations of the past (reproducibility in both print and in cast metal) may have changed, however, when brands expect their logos to light up on their electric cars...
Girl Scouts of the USA by Collins
Not just a patch, but a full patchwork. Collins has injected ‘fashun darling’ into a club that has collected aesthetic cobwebs over the past few decades. The Girl Scouts of the USA has finally been ripped from old-world rigidity into a brand with whimsey. A reset for now, and a lifestyle brand for tomorrow. Scouts is the sort of extra-curricular...
Great Wrap
Great Wrap is the only compostable cling wrap made from food waste and, as a brand, is on a mission to end a reliance on petroleum-based plastic. Whilst serious about the science behind their product, they also believe in having fun along the way. This is wonderfully expressed by their logo, designed by A Friend Of Mine, in the plasticity and...
Everybird by Marx Design
Few products have successfully integrated ethical, sustainable and environmental concerns with a product than coffee. It’s hard to imagine a time when the conditions of cultivation (both human and environmental) were not equal to flavour and – if we’re getting technical – whether the roast is blended or single origin. With its smaller volumes, the speciality coffee market has challenged...
Mama Mexa by Seachange
Tacos are a Mexican staple, consisting of a small hand-sized corn or wheat-based tortilla topped with a range of fillings. They make for perfect on-the-go food, packed full of flavour. This combination of convenience (quick to make or eat) and tastiness has seen the traditional dish rise in popularity as an ideal product to package and sell in many markets....
Ghia Non-Alcoholic Aperitif by Perron-Roettinger
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...