Kasper-Florio — SI Special

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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

Lotta Nieminen — SI Special

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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

HORT — High-res Special

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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

MadeThought × GF Smith — SI Special

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Beauty in the Making Exhibition

The Beauty in the Making exhibition takes visitors through the history of paper and the process of its making through a series of public talks, workshops and exhibitions. The exhibition aimed to tap into designers increased interest in traditional techniques and highlight the authentic heritage of this brand.

Interested in using ‘what we have’ and celebrating the product, we created bold installations using stacks of multi-coloured paper which acted as signage and information points throughout the space. Introductory copy and gallery plans were then stencilled using GFSmith’s CAD cutting machine in Hull (on down-time from making box prototypes). Exhibits were placed onto coloured sheets with a single turned up corner to reveal the caption.

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Colorplan Playbook

Keen to promote the new selection of colours introduced into Colorplan, our aim was to create a piece that highlighted the beautiful juxtaposition of colours within the range. Referencing Johannes Itten’s ‘Seven Methods of Contrast in Colour’, the piece is made up of three interactive ‘play’ books which encourage exploration and discovery.

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Colorplan Notebook

The brief for this piece was to create a functional notebook to showcase all 50 Colorplan papers. We were interested in taking conventional tab cutting traditionally found in large reference books and using them to reveal all 50 colours along the fore edge of the book, providing an endless number of colour combinations.

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Strathmore

Strathmore is a high grade and bulky paper ideally suited to process intensive techniques such as embossing, foiling and engraving. Our aim was to showcase these techniques in a contemporary way, giving them more relevance to GFSmith’s audience. Using ‘paper’ as the theme, we created a number of illustrations including a screwed up piece of paper (embossed), hole punches (engraving) and folded graph paper (thermography). The individual sheets are then held together, without glue, using a concertina locking sheet containing all the product and technical specifications.

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Oliver Spencer

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.

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Takeo Papers by GFSmith

When a product is intrinsically beautiful, its important to allow the product to speak and not apply excessive layers of graphics or design trickery. The Takeo Papers promotion showcases ten unique Japanese papers with a glue-less binding technique that allows sheets to be quarter folded and interleaved together. An outer ‘locking’ sheet containing all the technical information secures the sheets together.

A Few Words from the Editor

It’s finally here folks — a brand new feature on SI featuring none other than MadeThought. This beautifully understated selection of work marks the beginning of MadeThought’s relationship with GF Smith which is all about bringing things back to basics and building things out as the brand moves forward. An added bonus is that this feature also contains 3 short films which do a great job of expressing/capturing each paper format through the screen, although I encourage you to actually feel these pieces in person for the full experience ;) Big thank you once again to Ben and Alistair @ MadeThought for making this feature possible and I hope you (dear reader) enjoyed what you saw here today :)

IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS ALREADY…

MadeThought: Ten Years Yesterday — SI Special

A Friend of Mine — Recent Projects Showcase

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Significant Others Shop
Significant Others is a carefully edited online retailer offering locally crafted artworks and objects. The project is especially personal to the studio as it is a partnership between A Friend Of Mine’s Suzy Tuxen and longtime friend Ryan Ward, craftsman of United Measures. The products have a focus on hand crafted techniques rather than mass production, making each piece a labour of love. As well as the branding, packaging and web design, A Friend Of Mine designed the plywood series, abstractly and geometrically celebrating individual letters of the alphabet; which includes a pictoral set based on traditional Chinese ‘Tangrams’ providing a minimalist alternative for children’s bedrooms.

Art direction of photography was critical to the success of this project, with no physical presence, it was vital that the artworks and objects be seen in the home context, and the details and textures be shown. A Friend Of Mine worked collaboratively with Shane Loorham, in styling and art directing the range in local Melbourne homes. The website was designed with a clean interface suitable for multiple viewing platforms. The brand identity is bold and geometric, echoing the artwork and objects, while retaining an understated feel and allowing the products to be the primary focus. We created a monogram for Significant Others, which is punched into each artwork as a ‘maker’s marque’, following the tradition of potters and silversmiths.

$5 from every purchase is donated to Médecins Sans Frontières.

www.significantothersshop.com

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Modhouse
Founders of ‘Beach House Constructions’ decided to create a new business, Modhouse, focusing solely on sustainable modular homes. The various Modhouse prefabricated modules are perfect for those who want a quality, contemporary, sustainable home in a short time frame. The Modhouse brand identity system is based on a grid on which various graphic modules can be composed. Like the homes these modules are flexibly arranged in dynamic layouts to best suit the given content and context. This concept revolves around the notions of choice, adaptability and control, suggesting that Modhouse clients have the perfect toolkit when designing their dream home or project. The typography is bold, simple and clean and the varied palette, again hinting to flexibility, reflects the Scandanavian style of the homes. Online environment by Golden Grouse and That Mob.

www.modhouse.com.au

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Tourism Victoria
Several logos were created specifically for events held by ATE 09, a tourism trade show that connects Australian tourism business with international tourism retailers, suppliers, wholesalers and operators. ‘Hide and Seek’ is a dinner at Block Arcade in Melbourne, the maze style referencing the title and themes of the night. ‘Play’ is a dinner focussed on the concept of being a spectator at a Melbourne event. The letterforms are made up from the playing fields and markings of the three sports in focus, Horse racing, Tennis and Football.

We also designed a Gift postcard for the Australian Tourism Exchange 2009 (ATE 2009). This postcard will be inserted into a giveaway Crumpler bag for delegates, featuring Josh Petherick’s illustration, ‘Maze’. In keeping with Tourism Victoria’s thread theme, the threads begin with a journey, navigating through Melbourne’s famous icons, then meet in the centre to form a parcel gift.

These projects were made in collaboration with Coöp.

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Micro Kitchen
A Friend Of Mine collaborated with Broadsheet to bring Melbourne’s best chefs and designers together for a pop-up event, Micro Kitchen. AFOM’s Suzy Tuxen collaborated with Rhys Gorgol to design the identity, promotional materials and the interiors for the space. As part of the State of Design Festival, Micro Kitchen was a week-long event in which a variety of designers each “briefed” a renowned Melbourne chef on creating a soup, one for each day of the week.

The idea of a designer and chef ‘spooning’ lent a tongue-in-cheek approach to the identity. Fitting with the temporary ‘pop-up’ atmosphere, the window signage was all hand-painted, and logos illustrated in chalk to maximise impact within a lean budget.

Plywood furniture was made to house the pop-up coffee, soup and alcohol stalls, and a custom-built long table facilitated communal and social interaction. To decorate the lofty space we created a mobile of suspended spoons in a zig-zag pattern — reminiscent of lace, this gave a home-like atmosphere and created a sense of warmth.

Photography: Tobias Titz, Shane Loorham & Liz McLeish.
Lighting: Volker Haug, Placemats: Lightly

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Kitsch&Tea
Kitsch&Tea is a store and cafe by Naomi Burd selling bespoke teas and homewares. The identity created centres around the duality of the Kitsch&Tea offer. A unique typographic marque was created with an ampersand that can be seen in two ways; at first as an ampersand, and again as a tilted tea cup. A gingham pattern reminiscent of a 1950s kitchen tablecloth adds a nod of nostalgia to the identity.

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The Good Life Cookbook
Pan Macmillan publishers approached A Friend Of Mine to design and art direct ‘The Good Life’, the latest cook book by celebrity chef Adrian Richardson of La Luna Restaurant. In a saturated market, the book needed to have a point of difference and convey Adrian’s warm and passionate approach to food. An art direction style that incorporated the typography was developed, with hand-drawn titles and recreated in various mediums from ink, to flour and pastry. These physical pieces of type were then photographed in the same tone as the food and story telling images, creating a harmony and unity between type and image, and reinforcing the authenticity of Adrian’s philosophy around food. The seamless movement between type and image, and imagery and format, was continued through the book cover, in which the tablecloth used in the cover image extends to the bookmark ribbon.

Publishers: Pan Macmillan
Photographer: John Laurie
Props & Food Styling: Simon Bajada

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Booki.sh
Booki.sh is a complete web-based platform for distributing, selling and reading ebooks. With the intent to make reading ebooks fun and approachable, Booki.sh takes away the technical barriers. The identity had to reflect this ease in a warm and welcoming manner. A quirky bespoke typeface based on a pair of spectacles was created, lending a playful approach which was flexible enough to work as a stand-alone mark and housed within a ribbon device. We took reference from classic literary production techniques such as gilded page edges on the side of books as a nod to the past and used bookmarks as promotional collateral, adding a whimsical sense of irony to the identity. Inventive Labs designed the online environment with illustrations by Lachlan Conn and Ben Sanders. A Friend Of Mine designed subsequent illustrations, such as the ‘How to use Booki.sh’ steps in the Booki.sh booklet (Illustrations by Suzy Tuxen & Emily Fisher).

booki.sh

A Few Words from the Editor

So I got pulled into doing another feature today when SI officially “comes-back” next week — I’m sure none of you reading this are complaining… ;) In the the spotlight today is Melbourne’s A Friend of Mine (run by the ever so lovely Suzy Tuxen) who have updated their website with a large selection of new projects, many of which are showcased in all their high-res glory in this feature. Thank you once again to Suzy for the images and… Yes, I will get hold of the typeface info for each project! ;)

ADDITIONAL LINK WORTH CHECKING OUT

A Friend of Mine — SI Special
afom.com.au

Construct — Berkeley Branding

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Berkeley Branding

Construct, has completed a year long branding project for the Berkeley, the five star luxury hotel in Knightsbridge owned and operated by the Maybourne hotel group.

The branding review has included a new logotype, a simply exquisite re-cut of a classic English typeface. The understatement of the logotype is balanced with an innovative and flexible branding palette, allowing the hotel to engage in a sensitive dialogue with it’s guests, turning up the wit and energy where appropriate and keeping things simple where required. The colour palette is a refined cool blue, soft
grey, deepest inky blue/black and fresh white, inspired by the hotels iconic blue bar. The branding palette includes a bespoke geometric pattern, a clean technical line drawn illustration and bold use of typography and tone of voice, a contemporary approach to branding which is the antithesis of a cookie cutter approach to corporate branding.

Particular attention has been paid to detail with the selection of high quality papers, thermographic inks used for the logotype, print, embossing and apertures used to express the pattern and a matt metallic foil used to pick out the bold, contemporary typography.

“The Berkeley brand identity had to reflect the hotel itself, a rare combination of exquisite, intuitive five star service and intelligent innovation. We wanted to create a branding palette that could be as sensitive to guests needs as the hotel itself – witty and engaging at times, discrete when required and always beautiful, warm and welcoming” — Georgia Fendley, founder, Construct.

Typefaces Used: Johnston Light, Trade Gothic Ultra Condensed 20, Baskerville (Logo) and Johnston light (Logo descriptor).

www.the-berkeley.co.uk

A Few Words from the Editor

If you’ve been following SI or Twitter, you may have caught wind of the announcement that SI will officially be back in business next week after a short hiatus (I’ve been super busy what can I say!) Thank you (dear SI reader) for being so patient and thank you for continuing to support the site :) With that said, I thought some of you might appreciate this sneaky little update to set the tone for the quality you will witness next week… And the week after… And the week after that… Etc ;)

ADDITIONAL LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT

Previous Construct Features
constructlondon.com

Six — Recent Projects

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Uniform Wares: Series Mailers / Stationery / Gift Vouchers

Uniform Wares design and produce timepieces based around a philosophy that is firmly rooted in classic British design and contemporary styling. Their wristwatches are intended for everyday use by individuals with an eye for meticulous detailing and a passion for diligent, modern design.

Six worked closely with Uniform Wares to create a series of promotional mailers to be distributed at the Capsule Men’s show in New York (and later through their stockists), along with a redesign of their existing stationery suite. Templates for letterheads, invoices and delivery notes were designed to be integrated within the back end system of their forthcoming website. Six were also asked to produce a range of watch box inserts, gift vouchers and supporting gift wrap materials.

All of the printed collateral has been designed to reflect the simplicity of the companies pared-down aesthetic. Highlighted by the subtle use of the identity, applied in a grey, gun metal foil across a sophisticated dark grey colour palette and applied using an off-white foil on the letterhead.

The mailer itself is printed on a premium, smooth, coated stock to contrast the dark grey, uncoated belly band which is capable of holding a single series mailer. A further belly band with a spine was created with the capacity to hold all the series mailers. The ability to hand out the series mailers individually or as a collection was an important factor within the design. The promotional literature needed to be flexible and react to the way individual stockists buy into certain ranges which suit their products and audience.

Once the belly band has been removed, each mailer is bookended with the line artwork for the front and the back of the relevant watch. The mailer then opens like a book revealing a short history behind the company, the inspiration behind the series and information about the straps and watch finishes. Finally it opens out to A2 revealing lifestyle and closeup imagery of the range alongside the technical specifications for the series. Once opened out it can be used as a print which can be pinned to the wall. Each series mailer incorporates the range colour and a metallic silver is used as a subtle reference to production materials and engineered surface finishes found within the product.

Typefaces Used: FG Uniform-Medium198 (Uniform Wares Logotype), FG Uniform-SmallCaps198, FG Uniform-Text

www.uniformwares.com

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Kirschner
Kirschner is a cycling apparel brand hailing from Santa Catarina, Brazil. As a start-up, they required everything from a name and identity, right through to the apparel design and promotional collateral.

The final logo and overall direction was designed to convey a contemporary brand that recognised and celebrated the pedigree at the root of the sport. The modern styling with vintage nuances give the brand its own unique identity within an increasingly competitive market.

Paul Calver was appointed as lifestyle photographer and videographer, completing the visual direction for the Kirschner brand.

Typefaces Used: Champion, Modern 216

kirschnerbrasil.cc
calverphoto.com

A Few Words from the Editor

In the tradition of ‘Less is More’ (asserted by the legend that is Mies van der Rohe) today’s Friday Special features 1 recent and 1 brand new project from UK based creative consultancy Six, the design director’s of which just so happen to be (in no particular order) the talented Mr Darren Firth and the talented Mr Iain Follett ;)

Big thank you once again to Darren and Iain for making this feature possible and let’s not forget the Uniform Wares Exclusive! I hope you (dear SI reader) enjoyed this feature and I bade you a great weekend. PS. Thank you for all the kind words on Twitter, much appreciated as always :)

ADDITIONAL LINK WORTH CHECKING OUT

Six — Recent Projects Special
www.madebysix.com

Construct — Recent Projects Special

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Mulberry
Construct continue to work extensively for British design company Mulberry. Over the last 12 months, Construct has refined the original Mulberry logotype and the famous tree motif. This newly updated design has been applied across an extensive variety of applications including components that feature on all products, shop signage (in collaboration with Universal Design Studio), business stationery, a multitude of seasonal items and – most challenging of all – a huge gold inflatable Bayswater bag balloon.

Photography by Paul Greenleaf

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Mulberry 40th Birthday
For Mulberry’s 40th anniversary, Construct produced a celebratory book charting the growth of one of Britain’s most cherished luxury brands from its beginnings as a West Country-based lifestyle label to a globally recognised high-fashion label. Photographer Venetia Dearden spent two years capturing beautiful, everyday moments in the lives of the people that built and continue tom build the brand. Each book is packaged in a pass-the-parcel style gift wrap, each layer revealing a new and different phrase that encapsulates the brands personality. Construct were heavily involved in producing various promotional materials to support the book’s launch, from sticker sheets and ribbons, to postcards and cake slice boxes.

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Mulberry SS12
As part of the Spring Summer 2012 Campaign, Construct produced an exclusive retro-style newspaper that is rolled and hidden in what looks like a traditional style seaside stick of rock. Alongside, Construct designed a look-book and selection of postcards housed with a cover and belly band insipred by an ice-cream cone.

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Porto Montenegro
Luxury port Porto Montenegro is fast becoming the destination of choice for members of the European yachting scene. Construct were involved in revitalising the port’s brand producing a number of corporate assets including a brochure, carrier and tote bags, stationery and website.

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Claridge’s
Construct remain heavily involved in the extensive rebrand of luxury Mayfair hotel Claridge’s. Recent work includes the design of menus for a variety of locations within the hotel, including the stunning Foyer and Reading Room, the Claridge’s Bar and the Fumoir.

To help new employees understand the history and grandeur of the place and the privilege of working in one of London’s finest hotels, Construct produced a brand book, given to new staff. Filled with facts and figures as well as inspirational quotes from Spencer Tracey to Tom Ford, the 12 page hand-sewn book has gold and black paper tip-ins. A gold foiled Claridge’s crest features through out.

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Maybourne Papers
Now in their 8th issue, Construct continue to design and edit quarterly newspapers for Claridge’s, The Connaught and the Berkeley.

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Jacqueline Cullen
Designer, Jacqueline Cullen has developed innovative processes and formats that celebrate rather than disguise the inherent flaws and inclusions of Whitby jet (a black-as-night fossil of prehistoric trees). Construct crafted the identity and produced a toolkit comprising a variety of stamps (wax, embossing and ink) to reflect Jacqueline’s work.

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Carolina Bucci
Carolina Bucci creates modern and vibrant fine jewelry that echos her family’s rich heritage. Construct created a hand drawn logotype using watercolour paint that is a sentimental and nostalgic reference to Mediterranean holidays of the later 20th Century. A mixed palette of cool blues evokes sea and sky, long summers spent idling with loved ones on beautiful yachts and aperitifs on the terraces of harbourside restaurants.

With images by French Photographer Fred Pinet, Construct art directed and produced an oversized lookbook showcasing Carolina’s jewelry. Carrier bags and boxes are currently in development.

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Villa
A double bound brand book was produced for the employees of Villa, a cultural and gastronomic venue in Budapest. Featuring open edged binding with black stitching. Pages inside are french folded with pictures of Budapest hidden from view on the inside of the fold, while a beautiful story unfolds on the outer. The brand book is secured to a leather bound notebook using a leather wraparound cord. Each book features the Villa logo blind embossed onto the front.

A Few Words from the Editor

Today’s SI Special arrives just in time for the Bank Holiday holiday weekend — there should be enough here to keep you lot going for a few days ;) The studio in the spotlight today is none other than Construct, a London-based creative studio that produces nothing short of beautifully crafted work for clients in luxury/lifestyle sectors (for a more a more depth bio, read on here). This feature chronicles what they’ve been up to in the last 12 months.

Big thank you once again to Peter for making this feature possible ;)

ADDITIONAL LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT

SI Special — Construct: Part 1
SI Special — Construct: Part 2
constructlondon.com

Lee Goater — Recent Projects Showcase

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Converging Paths
Award winning theatre company Slung Low has created five new performance pieces for five North Yorkshire Festivals. A series of new pieces based on the novel The Ground Remembers by Matthew David Scott. Set in unusual and unique locations, the shows re-examine how audiences go and see a piece of theatre.

The creative solution explores the notion of ‘real magic’ and plays on the common water theme through refraction. Working with Mezz Davies, a combination of site specific location photography and studio shots were captured. Layers of sediment are suggested through the use of stacked typography, line work and photography. Fenner Paper helped to make effective use of budgets and stocks. Evolution Print produced the promotional print utilising die and laser cuts.

Converging Paths plays in 4 more festivals this year. www.convergingpaths.co.uk

Photography: www.mezzdavies.co.uk
Print: www.evolutionprint.com
Typefaces: www.swisstypefaces.com
Design, art direction and branding: www.leegoater.com

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Leeds Inspired
Leeds Inspired is part of the Leeds City Council Olympics Cultural Programme but will run beyond the 2012 games. The web element is designed to bring arts, cultural, digital, community and social events together in one place for the first time in a listing site curated by multiple event organisers. The idea is to make this information available as a plug-in for other sites promoting Leeds and to incorporate independent comment and news.

Leeds Inspired allows users to search and promote events and access funding for cultural activities in 2012 and beyond. An accessible and inclusive solution needed to communicate the Leeds Inspired values and vision to an extremely diverse audience without alienating or risking a snubbing from the cultural elite. Kilo 75 defined the user experience and built the site.

The Leeds Inspired site is has launched for beta testing. www.leedsinspired.co.uk

Web: www.kilo75.com
Print: www.evolutionprint.co.uk
Design, art direction and branding: www.leegoater.com

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Mobile Museum
Working in collaboration with We Love Technology, Leeds Galleries and Museums and young people from the region, Mobile Museum used creative writing and mobile phones to help young people make new connections with the objects on display across the different galleries and museums throughout the city. Newspapers with content part created by the youth groups, along with maps, napkins and a labelling a system were created to engage children, young people and families and encouraged them to read, write and share poems through the use of mobile phones.

Design, art direction and branding: www.leegoater.com
Technology: www.welovetechnology.com
Photography: www.mezzdavies.co.uk
Print: Guardian Press Manchester

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NSCD 25
To celebrate the 25th anniversary, an identity and print promotion was commissioned by the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. Having worked closely with NSCD since 2006, it was a great opportunity to re-visit some of the promotional material created over the past years. Working primarily with NSCD’s photography archive and recent brand photography by Chris Nash, an identity was developed and applied to invites, posters, banners, programmes and posters.

Design and branding; www.leegoater.com
Technology: www.welovetechnology.com
Photography: www.chrisnash.net
Print: www.northwolds.co.uk

A Few Words from the Editor

I have three fairly large updates to push out today, so the ‘few words from the editor’ section of each feature will be fairly sparse — It’s not like anyone reads this section anyway ;).

Thank you once again to Lee for making this feature possible and for the kind words and support :)

Identity — Website and Print Showcase

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Identity Website
New website designed and developed for Identity Press containing a beautiful collection of print work by various design studios (Ico, Marque, Spin, Design Assembly, Spring, Designwerk, Mulberry in-house, Powell Allen, etc).

www.identityprint.co.uk

Copywriting
 by Regard
Design by Morse Studio
Photography
 by Lee Mawdsley

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280 High Holborn — Marketing literature
280 High Holborn is an residential development in Central London. The theme of high specification carries through into the marketing materials.

This large-format brochure was printed on PhoeniXmotion Xenon and features a number of finer details, including a short cover in Colourplan Real Grey with a Sandgrain emboss, laser-cut numerals and green thread-sewn binding.

Designed by Spin (spin.co.uk)

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Heron Tower — 
Marketing literature
Heron Tower is a newly-built, state-of-the-art commercial tower in the City of London. The marketing materials reflect the scale and ambition of the project.

The book is case-bound with a metallic stock and is housed in a bespoke wrapped box, which features a matching lining paper and marker ribbon. The print remit involved large-scale full-colour work, consistent solids across a variety of stocks and typographic details in holographic foil.

Designed by ico Design (icodesign.com)

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Lascivious Lingerie
 — Spring/Summer 07 lookbook
Lascivious produce exquisite handmade lingerie. Attention to detail is the brand’s key quality, which naturally translates into design and print.

The saddle-stitched book is an intriguing combination of tactile paper stocks, short pages and an oversized cover. A mixture of black and white and colour photographs are printed on Naturalis Absolute White Smooth.

Designed by Marque (marquecreative.com)

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McDonald’s 
Colour Code Guidelines
As part of a major change in strategy, McDonald’s introduced a new colour directive, illustrated beautifully in this comprehensive guidelines kit.

The format, as with most guidelines documents, is an updatable binder. However, this one features a magnetic closure and a cover bound in custom-dyed cloth. Other special features include clear, white and yellow foil blocking throughout, a throw-out contents page and a routed foam panel to carry a selection of interior material samples.

Designed by Morse Studio (morsestudio.com)

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Mulberry
Autumn/Winter 11 invitation
Mulberry may have roots embedded in English heritage, but the brand is truly progressive. This invitation shook the preconceptions of accepted formats.

Packaged in a black covered box with a slip lid, this invitation is quite an elaborate piece of hand-finished paper engineering. The only way to describe it is as a ‘fortune-teller’ format, where the corners unfold to reveal the various details of the event. The finely-detailed artwork is produced in a combination of foil blocking in metallic gold and screen-printed white on black uncoated stock.

Designed by Mulberry in-house design team

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Osman Yousefzada Spring/Summer 12 lookbook
Afghan-British fashion designer, Osman Yousefzada, is British fashion’s best- kept secret. Like his work, this book is simple, crafted but attention-grabbing.

Full-page images, image textures and solids are printed on Naturalis, and the loose sheets are scored and collated as an A3 format magazine.

Designed by Spring

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Panthalassa
 — Marketing literature
Panthalassa is a 184 foot luxury super-yacht with interiors by Foster and Partners. The sophisticated marketing materials present her in suitable style.

The case-bound book is wrapped in Winter & Company’s Napura Khepra Madera, a wood-textured cover material, while their Papvr stock in pale blue was used for the end papers. The text stock is Mohawk Superfine Ultrawhite Eggshell. Other finishing details include an extremely delicate foil blocking in metallic blue, an Astralux slip sleeve and internal short pages.

Designed by Powell Allen (powellallen.com)

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Design Assembly — 3
Design Assembly was a challenging online design forum. This printed archive celebrates their third and final year in action.

The book comprises three different-sized volumes, glued together as one book. The three constituent parts each have a different binding method: Centre-sewn, PUR-bound (Polyurethane reactive glue) and naked-bound (without a hard cover). The combination of single-colour and full-colour print is complemented by foil blocked detailing in a gunmetal finish.

Designed by Matt Judge (madebyassembly.com)

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Design Museum — 
Wim Crouwel retrospective invitation
Identity were the official printers of the Design Museum’s highly anticipated Wim Crouwel retrospective in 2011.

The invitation comprised a triplexed Colorplan board, a large-scale foil blocking in silver and a wraparound dust jacket, also in Colorplan.

Designed by Spin (spin.co.uk)

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UEFA Champions League
 — Brand Guidelines
The official UEFA Champions League brand guidelines has become the benchmark for best practice within the sports marketing industry.

Two hardback books are housed in hinged slip cases, which are wrapped in Perigrina Majestic, lined with suede and finished with silver ribbons, glued in under the lining. Incorporated within the books is a football-shaped USB device, which sits in a kiss-cut recess in the double thickness cover board, and a folded A1 poster in a pocket. The print includes silver litho and silver foil blocking.

Designed by Designwerk (designwerk.co.uk)

No additional words from editor because he’s busy…

But I will say thank you to Hugh for taking the time to send all the imagery and text over ;)

ADDITIONAL LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT

Hugh Morse SI Special #1
Hugh Morse Recent Projects Special Feature
morsestudio.com