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Established & Sons
Art Direction, catalogues and marketing collateral for the London based design house
Typefaces used: Didoni URW, Helvetica

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Modus Publicity
Invitations and direct mail:
Typeface: DIN

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Royal Academy of Arts
Magazine redesign and art direction from 2008 to 2012
Typefaces used: Big Caslon (headlines) Fenway (text) Strada (sans serif)

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Comme des Garçons
Catalogue design featuring 40 artworks representing the G2 fragrance
Typefaces used: Helvetica

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ME London
Identity and advertising for the London design hotel
Typefaces used: Engravers Gothic (Bold, Regular)

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Stylists Book – Laurence King Publishing
Book about pioneering stylists in the fashion industry
Typefaces used: Poynter

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Le Temps
Collaboration with Simon Esterson and Jon Hill on the redesign of the daily newspaper in Geneva

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Parkview International
Multilingual company brochure for the international property developer
Typefaces used: Poynter, FZSSK

About the Studio

Micha Weidmann Studio (founded in 2001) is an art direction and design studio based in London. They help to build brands for creators of high-end products as well as consulting for publishers and art galleries with their publications, exhibitions and online presences. The studio’s creative approach is based on Micha Weidmann’s background in Swiss design and art direction defined through working with brands such as Prada, Tate Modern and Zaha Hadid.

A Note quick from the Editor

Micha Weidmann Studio is back on SI with plenty of new work (to satisfy all you print lovers out there) and a new understated, iPad friendly website. Thank you once again to Micha and Dean for making this feature possible :)

michaweidmannstudio.com

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Commodity
Identity and supporting marques.

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Men’s Collection
Product design, packaging and art-direction.
Photography by Luke Pearsall

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Women’s Collection
Product design, packaging and art-direction.
Photography by Luke Pearsall

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Commodity
Brand Iconography

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Commodity
Product development sketches

Behind the Brand

We [Commodity] worked hand-in-hand with Ferroconcrete to create not not only the brand, but also the complete e-commerce experience. This wasn’t a typical client/agency relationship as Yolanda Santosa (founder & creative director of Ferroconcrete) is also one of the co-founders of Commodity.

We noticed that the fragrance industry had been almost untouched by the digital age. The market seemed to be saturated with shirtless male models and lofty slogans—so we set about creating a modern brand of scents that felt accessible even for people who aren’t into fragrances. Eventually we want to bring people in to the creation process and let them vote on an ever-changing range of scents.

The problem is you can’t smell what you see online, so the biggest challenge was to design the service itself. We came up with the idea for an online service that lets people live with multiple scents in their daily lives. It made finding a great fragrance easy by letting you discover scents based on your own style, sample them in the comfort of your own home, and then have your choices delivered to your doorstep. We named the brand “Commodity” to bring a sense of honesty back to the industry. Each scent is simply named after a real commodity or an abstract one.

Behind the Design

For the 20 fragrances to truly shine, the design had to be simple and humble. When it came to the packaging, we opted for minimal and ergonomic shapes. We decided to highlight the name of each commodity without adding any superfluous elements. Even the exterior packaging puts an emphasis on content, highlighting the volume (30ml or 100ml). To bring warmth and familiarity, we used leather or suede for the ‘Roller’ carrying case. It feels like a trusty wallet and only gets better as it ages.

Typefaces Used

Logotype: Customised Novecento
Primary Typeface: Tiempos
Secondary Typeface: Alternate Gothic No 3 & Novecento

A Note from the Editor

If I’m honest, I rarely ever see Kickstarter projects (of this nature) that are the “complete package” — a great idea brought to life by beautifully executed product design and branding. So when I first set eyes upon Commodity, something within me just clicked. Not only did I appreciate what they were they trying to do as a company, I also couldn’t help but admire the effort they put into the branding of this venture — when a product label has the power to make you reach for your wallet, they’re clearly doing something right ;) Suffice to say, it made sense to give the hard-working ladies and gents (of Commodity) a feature on SI and maybe, just maybe, earn them some new fans in the process :)

Thank you once again to Owen for putting all the imagery and text together for this feature and best of luck reaching $50k!

Commodity on Kickstarter
www.commoditygoods.com
www.ferro-concrete.com

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Colorplan swatch book
The cover of the Colorplan swatch book represents the three signature aspects of the range: colour, weight and embossing. The circles are inlayed into the cover using the technique of ‘paper marquetry’. Inside documents the journey through the range, told in a way that allows the user to enjoy each individual colour.

The experience is designed to be more akin to a book, rather than a traditional gridded selector. Embossing textures are shown in both black and white allowing the user to clearly understand how the paper will hold a texture.

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Colorplan business card
The business cards employ the same idea as the swatch cover. Our technique of paper marquetry is used to inlay the three colours (the only thing printed is the black for the logo).

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www.colorplanpapers.com

A digital platform has been developed to encourage the user to explore and play with the full palette and versatility of the range; delivering an experience beyond the physical limitations of the swatch book. Primarily designed as a tool to appreciate the papers qualities, colours can be moved freely, juxtaposed, compared, and colour combinations recommended.The Colorplan Swatch Library can also be downloaded onto your computer to allow the palette of 50 colours to be used instantly (and without need for mixing your own matches).

The site will continue to be developed and expanded with further functions added in the coming months (for example, downloadable embossing textures for visuals; global map showing availability, sample requests; etc).

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Colorplan typeface
For the launch of the website, a bespoke typeface called ‘Colorplan’ has been developed. The font delivers an elegant, crafted and idiosyncratic character with a light and delicate impression. Characters of particular interest include the lowercase ‘g’, uppercase ‘M’, and the numerical character set.

About the Project

Colorplan is an iconic range of premium uncoated coloured papers and boards which is available in a broad palette of 50 colours, 8 weights and 25 embossed textures. First developed in 1972, this select and versatile range of papers is widely considered to be indispensable within the design industry.

The Colorplan brand reflects the same effortless simplicity, confidence and beauty of the product itself, concentrating on the expressive qualities inherent in the paper, rather than focusing on its technical attributes. This viewpoint directly engages and inspires the design audience who specify the product.

The Colorplan brandmark is based on the simple concept of representing a physical sheet of paper – a turned up corner, traditionally used to mark a page for reference. When applied, the brandmark reveals another layer.

Acknowledgements

I’d like to take a minute to thank Ben for putting together all the imagery, text and video for this feature. And of course, a hat tip goes to the Made Thought crew for consistently producing beautifully crafted, thoughtful design.

www.colorplanpapers.com
www.madethought.com
Follow @made_thought on Twitter

Design & Production

Design of Brand Identity, swatch book and Website: Made Thought
Typeface: Made Thought & Colophon Foundry
Web Programming: ICO
Colour Book Print: PUSH

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Book Design and custom typography by Kobi Benezri
‘Where Chefs Eat: A Guide to Chefs Favourite Restaurants’ is a new International restaurant guide listing contributions from more than 400 of the world’s best chefs, from neighbourhood eateries to three star restaurants, totaling over 2,300 recommendations.

Project Background

One of my favourite objects at home is a book that my wife received from Alan Fletcher years ago. It is the 1956 local phone directory of residents and businesses in Hastings, England, published by the Kelly’s Directory (or “Buff Books”). In the mid 1900′s, before product placements and Google ad-sense, these types of directories, such as the Kelly’s in the UK, or the Polk’s in the US, displayed a type of commercialism that was so pure and direct. The objects—essentially phone books with listings of businesses—are used to the max with ‘premium listings’ all over the front cover, the spine, the back cover and the pages edges. They are rare looking peculiar books that attracts anyone who looks at them (I know that because everyone who sees it at my home, picks it up!)

These “all-in-one” books convey a rich amount of information and the typography as a result is an eclectic mix that varies from vernacular and local, to luxurious and esoteric, very much like restaurant signage.

The Design

In the design brief for ‘Where Chefs Eat’ I was asked to create a design that carries hard solid facts e.g. “A guide from the real experts”, “Chosen by the world’s best chefs”, “Hot, insiders information”, “From bargain to high end”. By organizing the information in the same manner seen in the Kelly’s and the Polk’s directories, I could place as many messages as I wanted as part of the design concept, without shouting “BUY ME!” in its mundane “make-it-bigger sales-exec” style, but rather as a direct aesthetic link to products themselves: restaurants. Great ones, and lots of them!

The design for each chapter openers ties in directly with the cover, allowing to display further messages or call out quotes from known chefs.

The listings layout had to divide the different types of information (restaurant’s name, contact info and address, details, quotes from chefs, and the actual review) in an elegant way. I wanted it to have a feel of a directory and I chose to use Matthew Carter’s Bell Centennial from the AT&T’s phone books. The different styles of this font allowed for a coherent formatting of the listings, and the titles were all set in Tobias Frere-Jones’s Garage Gothic.

The entire book is printed in one color, and all 704 pages of it are pure typography and cartography. I drew the maps specifically for this book — a hard labour that was worth it, in my view, as any other existing map style would feel somewhat defiling. There’s more than a fair amount of typefaces in this book, including a few unreleased ones that I had drawn myself over the years — some were used once in a single projects, other were never used — needless to say, this was a good chance to utilize some of them and ultimately create an object that would truly stand out on store displays or the online retail sphere.

Acknowledgements

Big thank you once again to Kobi for taking time to put all the images and text together.

www.kobibenezri.com
‘Where Chefs Eat’ on Phaidon

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Fourth Floor Corner Shop Identity, Packaging and Signage
Design: North in collaboration with Richard Stepney

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Fourth Floor Packaging
Design: North

Project Background

For more than two decades Fourth Floor has been doing things differently – cutting and colouring hair with maximum application and minimal fuss from its bright, split-level salon atop a 1930s industrial building in the heart of Clerkenwell. Accessed via a goods lift, it has remained firmly below the radar while attracting a fiercely loyal clientele and whilst many come from the arts, media, design and the creative industries all share with Fourth Floor an independence of thought and outlook. Its recent twentieth anniversary was marked by the publication of a clothbound book (click here to see the feature) featuring interviews, designs and recipes from clients including Jon Snow, Tom Dixon and Nigel Slater.

Now Fourth Floor is venturing into new territory. From the beginning of November to the end of December 2012, its upper floor — the fourth, in fact — will play host to the Fourth Floor Corner Shop, an emporium showcasing a selection of covetable wares from local businesses and designers based in Clerkenwell and Bloomsbury, who share Fourth Floor’s independent, idiosyncratic ethos. Clients will be free
to browse the concessions, pre- or post-appointment, while casual visitors will also be welcome to experience this unique retail environment. “It gives people a chance to see what we’re about, while also offering a showcase for our friends and neighbours,” says Fourth Floor owner Richard Stepney.

Design Notes

The ’4′ graphic was intended to inherit some of the DNA of the striped identity of the Fourth Floor packaging that North created some years ago. The Corner Shop logotype is loosely based on Skyline Black (designed by Imre Reiner C.1927) but has been completely redrawn.

Acknowledgements

Big thank you once again to Stephen and Jeremy for making this feature possible.

www.4thfloor.co.uk
www.northdesign.co.uk

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Flyer announcing a party at the ‘Lokremise’, a former roundhouse at the main station in St.Gallen. Organised by the music label ‘Abbruchhaus’. Printed with spot ink on three different papers.

Fonts: Union

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Flyer announcing a party at the club Zukunft in Zurich. The give-away was a diamond, laser-cut from fabric by Jakob Schläpfer, which inspired us to experimenting with light refractions on typography, using our typeface ‘Kasparov’. Printed on 45 gsm white and metal coated paper.

Fonts: Kasparov

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Corporate identity for Made In Europe. The visual element of the new identity builds an analogy to the 12 stars of the Flag of Europe. Given 12 as a symbol of completeness and perfection formed to a circle of unity, it stands for both the careful craftmanship in every detail and the responsible treatment of natural rescources and the individuals involved in the process.

Fonts: Custom logo typeface and Baskerville

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Invitation cards for excursions to Basel and Leipzig/Dresden by St.Gallen’s art association ‘Kunstverein’.

Typefaces Used: TBA

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Corporate identity for London based menswear label Hopper & Lace. Reading the name, Edward Hopper played one of the main roles in influence to the labels work and philosophy. Whereas nudity and clothing form an important part in his figure paintings, the emotional expression of his characters, his use of color, light and shadow and the emptiness and simplicity in every scenery have been incorporated into the first collection. (Work in progress)

Fonts: FFBau and Century ATF Schoolbook

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Flyers announcing a party series offering a selection of fine brandies and good music. The french title means ‘Water of Life’ as a metaphor for ‘schnapps’. The lines are hand printed using a metal printing plate. In collaboration with Andrea Rüeger.

Fonts: Sanzettica

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Corporate identity for the 5th edition of the art fair ‘Roma Contemporary’ in Rome, Italy. To contrast the classical and historical reputation of Rome the graphics are playful and clean at the same time. The new language forms a modular system, which gives the art fair an independent and strong identity.

Fonts: Maria

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Flyer announcing a party at the club ‘Zukunft’ in Zurich presented by the label ‘Abbruchhaus’, which is the german expression for a condemned house. The destruction is showed through a physical transformation of the word ‘Zukunft’.

Fonts: Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk

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Invitation card announcing the birthday party of a friend. As time is a serious matter in this case we played with elements of a clock to symbolize that some things change by getting older. If it is that time is relevant or maybe irrelevant. So it is like breaking the time and forgetting its relevance for a moment and celebrating something that is more than that.

Fonts: Maria and Primus Antiqua BQ

Editorial

Today’s special feature has taken a while to materialise — work has been reshot, a website has been coded, but alas everything has come together nicely and I’m happy to share with you (Dear SI reader) a selection of brand and new (and some older) pieces of work from newly formed studio Kasper-Florio which comprises of Larissa Kasper and Rosario Florio, 2 names you may recognize from this past feature).

Kasper-Florio‘s working method follows a quality-conscious and conceptual position aiming for project specific solutions with a strong approach to elaborated and solid typography. Aspiring towards mindfully executed design, they work on various commissions in the cultural field, art, fashion and music.

At this point, do I really need to say anything else? ;) Big thank you once again to Rosario and Larissa for making this feature possible.

www.rosarioflorio.ch

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Fedrigoni Packaging
Design Project were recently appointed by Fedrigoni to produce technical literature and packaging to showcase their UK product portfolio to designers, printers and specifiers. The 4-part swatch set, housed in a protective sleeve, brings together a selection of their Coloured, Unique, Pearlescent and Textured paper & board ranges.

To give structure and to help identify the ranges, each swatch displays a different colour bar on the cover — a visual identification system that was directly derived from the paper waterfalls within each guide. To support the information-heavy content, all the grades and weights have been meticulously arranged and are accompanied by an easy to navigate product matrix.

This Paper Specification Guide is a limited edition, so if you’d like to request a copy, email info@fedrigoni.co.uk (while stocks last).

Typeface used: Akkurat
Photography: Lindsay Broadley

Editorial

Having purged SI of malicious malware (this week) which rendered the site un-viewable, it’s good to be back! Obviously I’m still “warming up” for the next big update (coming next Friday) so in the meantime I have some brand new work to share with you from a studio that many SI readers know and love: Design Project.

You may also be interested to know that Design Project are hard at work on their new website and you can track their progress by following them on Twitter: @designproject_

Thank you once again to Andy for the exclusive feature :)

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Maeven
Identity for Maeven (pronounced may-ven), a Brooklyn-based online shop with a collection of vintage and preowned designer clothing. The pattern, used in packaging materials ranging from tissue paper to stickers and mailing bags, uses the two thicknesses of the logo to form a texture reminiscent of pixels, referring to the vintage shop being only online. The colors are a modern interpretation of the vintage red and blue striped envelopes.

Typefaces Used: Modern 20, Modern No. 20 Italic

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Jennifer Behr
Brand book design for luxury hair accessory designer Jennifer Behr. The logo was bronze foiled onto the thick cardboard covers.

Creative Direction Roanne Adams (Studio RoAndCo)
Design Lotta Nieminen

Typefaces Used: Trade Gothic Bold Condensed 20, Arnhem Blond

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Trendi
Layout redesign for Finnish monthly fashion magazine Trendi. Together with Leena Vainio. Subscriber covers were stripped of the commercial big titles, and replaced with hand lettered versions.

Typeface Used: Austin with hand lettering by Lotta Nieminen

Paper Doll beauty editorial
Paper headpieces: Lotta Nieminen and Aino Ahtiainen
Photography: Marko Rantanen

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Arttu
Design and layout for the 4/08 issue of Arttu, the University of Art and Design Helsinki’s quarterly magazine. Open sources and shared information were the leading themes of the issue, and were also used as an approach from a design perspective, showcasing the table of contents first thing on the cover. In collaboration with Mikko Luotonen.

Typefaces Used: Knockout, Monaco, Sentinel

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Feyt
Identity and web layout for Feyt (www.feyt.com), a website that customizes and curates your shopping experience with the help of online surveys and stylists.

Creative Direction Roanne Adams (Studio RoAndCo)
Design Lotta Nieminen

Typefaces Used: Gotham, Caslon 540

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Anna Mun Olla
Exhibition identity for the Annantalo Culture Center in Helsinki. Anna mun olla (Let Me Be) showcased art about and by disabled people. The visual concept of the exhibition was based on filling in the sentence “Let me be …”. This was applied to a series of four posters, opening invitations, entrance stickers and programme. In collaboration with Mikko Luotonen.

Typefaces Used: Modified Knockout, Plantin, Futura

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KI Kinnunen
Visual identity for fashion designer KI Kinnunen. The golden rectangle used on the business card and hang tags symbolizes a protective shield, one of the important inspirations to the first collection.

Typeface Used: Modified Trade Gothic Bold Condensed No. 20

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KI Kinnunen — Faraday Suit
Book design for fashion designer KI Kinnunen’s written master’s thesis. Like its content, the layout for Faraday Suit – Vestural Retreats for Electrospheres was influenced by science and designed in line with the identity created for the fashion brand.

Typefaces Used: Knockout, Gotham Book, Austin Roman, Mercury Text

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Marks & Spencer
Label illustrations for Barossa, major British retailer Marks & Spencer’s range of Australian wines.

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Herald Tribune
Cover illustration for the International Herald Tribune’s Global Agenda 2011 issue.

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Suez
Illustrations for the annual report of Suez Environnement, a French utility company which operates in the water treatment and waste management sectors.

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Casamica
Editorial illustration for Casamica, the design supplement to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The letters in Verso Est (Towards East) were illustrated for the opening spread, featuring elements from all the cultures presented in the issue dedicated to Eastern design.

Editorial

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to you the multi-talented graphic designer, illustrator and art director Lotta Nieminen. Based in New York but originally from Helsinki, Finland, Lotta has worked for fashion magazine Trendi, Pentagram Design and RoAndCo Studio in addition to being a recipient of numerous awards and accolades (rightly so may I add!)

Whilst this feature has been long overdue, the timing couldn’t be better — Lotta’s beautiful new site went live this week and I encourage you to have a look as there are many gems on there that didn’t find their way into today’s feature. Thank you once again to Lotta for making this feature possible and for being a long time reader — much appreciated :) To SI’s loyal readers: Take the time to enjoy what you see here today because it may be a while before we do another big feature of Lotta’s work… :)

www.lottanieminen.com

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Yohji Yamamoto/V&A Exhibition & Publication

YES collaborated with Peter Saville on the art direction and design for the retrospective exhibition of Yohji Yamamoto’s work. Under the direction of Saville, we were responsible for all visual material produced for show. Elements included a 192 page case‑bound book, print campaign, exhibition graphics, private view invites, exhibition guide and signage around the V&A. Main campaign image shot by Nick Knight, who alongside Peter Saville and Marc Ascoli, had created the defining Yohji campaigns of the 80s and 90s.

Typeface Used: Helvetica Neue

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Paul McCartney Archive Collection

In early 2010 YES were commissioned to conceive and design a series of key McCartney re‑releases. The ongoing project encompasses creative direction, branding, packaging, editorial consultancy and book design. The form of the high‑end deluxe edition (pictured) was conceived as an alternative to the more familiar, box set formats, taking inspiration from high‑end art and photography books, rather than music packaging. For each release extensive research within the McCartney archive is necessary to build a complete document of the period surrounding the original release.

Typeface Used: McCartney (Cooper and Monosten), Band on the Run (News Plantin and Monosten), McCartney II (Caslon Book and Monosten)

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Warp 20

Warp Records comissioned YES to create the identity and visual material for their 20th anniversary — Warp20. The imagery we conceived aimed to reflect the iconic, ever evolving nature of the label and it’s place in British music. We comissioned the fabrication of a large scale 3D Möbius strip to be photographed in various environments around the country. In collaboration with photographic artist Dan Holdsworth 20 images were produced to mark the labels connection to the UK. The centrepiece of the project was the ‘Warp20 (Box Set)’ — a super‑deluxe, limited edition release comprising exclusive content and music in a high‑spec package.

Typeface Used: Akkurat

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Paul McCartney Archive Collection – RAM

After almost a year in development we’re proud to announce the new release in the Archive Collection — RAM. As a key record for McCartney, it qualified for the ‘super‑deluxe’ treatment. After many rounds of production prototyping and experimentation we chose a clam‑shell box format, containing a rich variety of material designed to reflect the free‑spirited nature of the period. The package includes a softcover book; featuring open binding and a hand screen‑printed cover, a set of reproduction photographic prints, a scrapbook containing unseen photography and drawings, a set of facsimile lyric sheets and a tiny book featuring all the sheep photographed during the original cover shoot.

Typefaces Used: Cheltenham, Century School Book and Monosten

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Mark Wallinger/Hayward Gallery Exhibition & Publication

YES collaborated with Turner Prize winner Mark Wallinger to create the publication for the exhibition The Russian Linesman, at the Hayward Gallery, London. The show takes its title from a famous – or infamous – sporting moment when the linesman awarded the decisive goal to England in the 1966 World Cup Final. This controversial ruling exemplifies a central concept of this project; disputed boundaries. The cover of the hard‑bound edition illustrates, in abstracted, diagrammatic form, the moment in question. The book took reference from many forms; journal, notebook, artists book and classic text. The design, informed by the central investigation of boundaries and thresholds, was allowed to be non‑systematic in both image and text layout. Mark’s stream‑of‑consciousness text allowed for fluidity and subtle conventional‑breaking. This way of working lead to an end‑product that both informed, and was an extension of the exhibition.

Typefaces Used: Johnston and Sabon

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M.A.P Website

M.A.P are a creative management agency, representing the top tier of fashion photographers and styling talent worldwide. Commissioned by founder Julie Brown, YES proposed a complete overhaul of visual communication both digitally and in print. We developed a typographic identity based around a strong graphic contrasts — between the bold company letterforms and the more delicate supporting typography. A key aspect of our approach for the website was to emphasise the high‑quality news output that was previously published on a separate platform. We repositioned the news to become the primary page of the site giving an immediate and dynamic overview of recent activity in the agency.

www.mapltd.com

Typefaces Used: Engravers Gothic, New Baskerville

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Quinn Architects Identity & Website

Quinn Architects are a London‑based practise working on commissions in both the UK and US. Working closely with the Quinn team we completed a total overhaul of their visual communication. The primary challenge of the website redevelopment was how to best present the diverse range of content related to each project. We created a flexible layout system that allowed the team to build varied narratives highlighting the individual aspects of each project. Through this system Quinn are able to emphasise certain projects that best communicate their process‑based approach. We also developed a hardware accelerated WebGL model viewer to allow users to explore 3D architectural models from within the site.

quinnuk.com

Typeface Used: Fugue and Neuzeit

Editorial

I’ll admit, whilst the Warp 20 project isn’t “recent” as the title of this feature implies, it is certainly special… ;) That is why it sits alongside more beautifully designed pieces of work that only touch the surface of what London based, multidisciplinary studio YES are capable of. I’m sure you’ve all heard the saying “Jack of all trades, master of none”. Well, YES (in my opinion) are an exception to this rule — not only do they excel at print and branding, but they also produce equally great websites that are attractive and functional. Suffice to say, this studio is definitely one I’ll be keeping my eyes on! Thank you once again to Simon and James for making this feature possible and I hope you (dear SI reader) enjoyed this feature.

yesstudio.co.uk

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Bauhaus Dessau Foundation — Corporate Identity

When we began working on the new identity of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation we decided to search for a solution that would relate more to the original ideas of Germany’s most influential Modernist school instead of relying on the visual clichés connected to Bauhaus – it seems almost impossible to use circle, square and triangle nowadays without it coming across as ironic or historicist. Apart from stationery, brochures, posters, tickets, website etc. the new identity also included the redesign of the signage of Gropius’ famous Bauhaus building. This factor making it even more important that a clear distinction could be made by visitors what was apart of the original structure and what new additions we had made.

We thought a generic design would work best in order to make this distinction. The new identity was created by using strict typography, a minimalist layout, standardised formats and no colour. Being the most generic and incidental typeface, Courier was selected as the new corporate font. To guarantee a unique identity we changed the capital “A” of Courier according to Herbert Bayer’s well-known logo on the front of the Bauhaus Dessau building. Additionally, the new Bauhaus Dessau logotype is always set vertically. The entire typographic system consists exclusively of common system fonts, an approach connected to the original Bauhaus ideology that demanded functionality and designs based on the potential of mass-production.

Typefaces Used: Dessauer Courier & Arial Black

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Nike Branding System/span>

Nike USA commissioned us to develop a system that easily allows them to design printed matters in a very short time, to communicate the special moment of a day. There are different kind of solutions possible. Pure typography vs. a strong image from the game – or all together as one poster. C l e v e l a n d – C o l o u r s vs. Lakers-Colours. Let the game begin.

Typeface Used: Magnificent Momentum (Custom)

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Calle Underground Branding

We were commissioned to work on the branding for Calle Underground. We developed a visual system for printed matter – like flyers, posters, catalogs – as well as moving image, events and apparel.

Calle Underground is a sub-brand of Calle. The identity is an interaction between two layers. The spontaneous use of the Calle typeface on the format, as well as the interaction of the doodles, create a flexible system that can steadily expand. Both levels communicate rhythm and movement, improvisation and action – like in street soccer.

Typeface Used: Super Grotesk

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Nike: Witness Campaign

Nike USA commissioned us to design the key visuals for the WITNESS campaign. LeBron James is playing in different cities and is wearing a special shoe. Therefore we came up with these nice letterpress images.

Typeface Used: Custom

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Nike: The World Is Watching

Oliver wanted to provide notecards for the fashion press at his Spring/Summer menswear show at the finale of London Fashion Week 2012. The solution uses a single sheet of folded paper to hold four A6 cards.

Typeface Used: Custom

Editorial

HORT began its inhabitance back in 1994, under the previous stage name of EIKES GRAFISCHER HORT, named after Eike König the original founder. HORT is a direct translation of the studio’s mission — a creative playground — a place where ‘work and play’ can be said in the same sentence. Once a household name in the music industry HORT is now, a multi-disciplinary creative hub. Not just a studio space, but an institution devoted to making ideas come to life. A place to learn, a place to grow, and a place that is still growing. Not a client execution tool, HORT has been known to draw inspiration from things other than design.

Having admired HORT’S approach to design for quite some time now, it only recently dawned on me that HORT have never actually been featured on SI! So today I can finally atone for this “crime” and feature a nice selection of their newer projects with more to come in the near future (at this time of writing, HORT were having some trouble accessing higher-re versions of other projects).

Big thank you once again to Eike and Elizabeth for making this feature possible and I hope you, dear SI reader, enjoyed this feature :)

www.hort.org.uk