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Petter Skogstad — Identity
Petter Skogstad is a young and promising product designer. We designed his identity for his launch at Salone Satellite Milano 2010. His work questions the role of furniture, and how subtle design can be. A designs strength lies, not only in how much an object is designed, but also how ordinary design can be when being used in everyday life. These thoughts follow the traditions and ideology of Supernormal. We designed posters, business cards and compliment slips for the Milano exhibition as well as giving advice on the stand in order to make everything come together as a strong identity. The stand was nominated best in show by Monocle. Other designed materials include foil on stand, stationery, cd-covers, website etc.
Typefaces Used — Century Gothic, modified
The choice of typeface started with the basic idea of the overall identity we did for Petter. Very simple, yet modern in its details, with a geometric approach. We struggled a bit to find the exact typeface, and ended up modifying a Century Gothic. It created a very interesting look, making the typeface an identity in itself. It also answered a few other aspects, as it gave the idea and look a resemblance to the idea of Jasper Morrisons and Fukasawas “Super Normal”, as well as taking that idea into a new context.
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Museale forstyrrelser — Catalogue
YourFriends was asked to do a catalogue presenting an art-project initiated by Arts Council Norway. Five contemporary artist was asked to interpret each their historical museum. The intention was to promote local story-telling with a modern expression as an interception. We decided to use the same principles as starting point for the design. The catalogue is based on historical book-binding techniques put into a modern context and applied to a different format. This way we created our own interception between the historical and contemporary. Nara Std (Typotheque) helped convey the message in a subtile manner as it is built upon principles of modernism and humanism in typeface design.
Typefaces Used — Lydian MT, Nara Std
Nara Std (Typotheque) helped convey the message in a subtile manner as it is built upon principles of both modernism and humanism in typeface design.
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A Poor Mans Connoisseur Guide — Guide Book
After the success of our Oslo Guide from 2009 we were asked to update the guide and release a 2nd edition in conduction with Øya Festivalen 2010. In collaboration with Music Oslo and Sondre Sommerfelt (the editor), we updated the design and content to make it more functional and make room for bigger photos. The book builds on the separation between east and west in Oslo, which has a strong historical aspect of how the city has become, and how the Akerselva (river running through the whole city) have had such huge impact on Oslo itself, as well as cultural history and politics.
Typefaces Used — Akkurat
Dealing with city guides, we decided early on that this project were going to differ itself a lot from the ones already on the market. The approach from the editor also gave the whole project a need of a totally different look. It is a subjective city guide, which makes it more characteristic and identifying. We decided that the overall approach to be more important, rather than over-designing and adding another level of confusion. Akkurat has both character, as well as being neutral enough for the type to be dominating, but yet treating the actual content to be top priority. The typeface also works very good when dealing with narrow columns.
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Studenthåndbok 10/11 “ABC” — Handbook
ABC is a book helping students getting familiar with their school, rules and regulations upon starting their study year. Oslo National Academy of the Arts moved to new facilities this year and all courses are now situated in the same building. Glossy paper was used throughout, and we included a section highlighting the architectural qualities of the building, which relates to the rough feel on the cover. The large industrial window, which is embossed on the cover, is one of the most essential architectural details and gives a good impression of the qualities of the building. The content was conveyed by working with hierarchies highlighting the most important parts of the texts and thus helping navigation and importance.
Typefaces Used — Akkurat
Akkurat has in many ways answered all of our needs to a modern sans serif face. As a mix between certain qualities in a sans serif, the way it has been kerned works really well in both small and display sizes. From the main idea for this project, the information given throughout the book, were set according to the importance in the content. The grids changed and was rated from 1 to 3, and were set in typesizes which differs in the hierarchy. The way Akkurat tends to operate answered to these requirements, both being very compact, and visually striking in its simplicity.
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Ny Norsk Arkitekturpolitikk — Exhibition Identity
We were asked to design material for a conference held by the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs and Norsk Form. The topic was Ny Norsk Arkitekturpolitikk (The New Politics of Architecture, Norway). Among the speakers were Tyler Brülé, John Thackara, Juan Herreros and Trond Giske (Norwegian Minister of Culture and Church Affairs).
We worked on the idea that architecture is about material and how people involve themselves in the environment around and in context to the buildings. Material produced included different paperstocks and we tried to find ways to make information available on more than one level. The goal was to inspire the viewer and make s/he think about why the different materials were used. As using one side can also have impact on how the opposite will end up, and the perception of how architecture affects our vision in relation to the tactile experience. Among the printed matter we designed, were invitations, web material, documentfolders, nametags, screen-visuals etc.
Typefaces Used — Kada, Lettera
Working with architecture, brings us back to the definition of what typography is when dealing with graphic design.
“Graphic design repeats in miniature what architecture does monumentally.”
– Virginia Smith
The architecture for us, in this case, was the use of type, and grid, as the core of what makes design being successful or not. Good architecture aren´t always the most striking ones, but when structures and space actually works. The use of boldness with rounded forms answered the idea of using embossing as a main element, and a monotype for additional texts as more strict approach to giving the content/text more structure. Both are subtile references which made us work in a strict manner of both grids and the overall identity.
Looking for a foundation in both the world of art, and in simple mathematics, we came up with a set of rules that provided an illustrative, repeatable pattern. We built the pattern in several layers of cardboard an photographed it for the vinyl sleeve design, and simplified it into vector graphics for prints on t-shirts and tote bags.
There’s a considerable amount to take in, in today’s special feature, so I’m going to keep this (rant) short and sweet.
Your Friends is an Oslo based graphic design studio, founded by Carl Gürgens and Henrik Fjeldberg. Offering strong ideas and carefully crafted design solutions for a large range of clients, they strive to push boundries within solutions based on conceptual thinking.
This feature contains a very generous selection of recent projects that demonstrate their keen eye for typography and an acute attention to detail. Thank you once again to Mr. Carl Gürgens for providing the insightful project descriptions and of course for the 100+ images I had to sort through. ;)
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This post is tagged Books, Catalogues, Collateral, Identity, Print, Your Friends
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