Hasta La Ideas

We Launch has created a new identity for the Jamaican bobsleigh and skeleton athletes at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games in South Korea – aiming to separate the team from its comedic association with the film Cool Runnings.

The rebrand comes 30 years after the team’s first, now infamous, appearance at the winter games in 1988, which was immortalised in the 1993 film Cool Runnings.

Working pro bono, London-based design agency We Launch created a new visual identity that differs from that seen in the film – aiming to change public perceptions of the team and position them as one the world’s foremost sliding nations.

“The goal of the project was to get away from the association with Cool Runnings,” Stuart Lang, founder and creative director of We Launch told Dezeen. “Whilst the movie was a great vehicle for allowing the world to know that there was, in fact, a Jamaican Bobsleigh Team, it was a comedy – and has meant that nobody outside the two sports [bobsleigh and skeleton] has taken the organisation seriously ever since.”

“But in fact the athletes are highly professional – elite, world-beating sports people in their own right. They deserve to be considered and regarded in the same bracket as all of Jamaica’s other international superstars.”

The rebrand was undertaken after Jamaica’s national bobsleigh and skeleton teams merged to form one organisation – the Jamaican Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation.

Throughout the redesign, the colours of the Jamaican flag – black, green and yellow – are used prominently.

A sweeping “J” icon – also featuring the flag’s cross motif – combines “angles and curves from the track”.

We Launch chose to use the typeface Core Sans Bold Italic in order to make the text legible when the athletes are moving at speed. 

In the full name of the Jamaican Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation, the name is typeset in upper and lowercase to make it feel “friendly and accessible”, while the individual team identities were set in uppercase to create “confidence and impact.”

The studio’s decision to carry out the rebrand for free was based on the aim of helping to kickstart winter sports in the country.

“Not many NGBs (National Governing Bodies) are particularly well funded,” said Lang. “Most are continually fighting for funding and sponsorship – and as such, don’t have big budgets to play with.”

“With Jamaica, this is even more apparent – especially as most of the focus goes onto their athletics team,” continued Lang.

The Jamaican Skeleton teams began competing on 15 February 2018, while the bobsleigh team will be in action from the 18 February.

The post Jamaican bobsleigh team rebrands to “get away from association with Cool Runnings” appeared first on Dezeen.

Creative agency Folk has designed a typeface to mark the centenary of Lithuania‘s independence – basing it on the handwritten lettering used to create the country’s independence declaration in 1918.

Today, 16 February 2018, marks 100 years since Lithuania – now with a population of almost 3 million – broke away from the Russian Empire.

It remained an independent nation until 1940, when it was occupied by the Soviet Union. The country regained its freedom again in 1991 and ultimately joined the European Union in 2004.

Named Signato, Folk’s typeface is based on a handwritten document by politician Jurgis Saulys in 1918 that declared Lithuania’s independence as a modern state.

The original document – named the Act of Reinstating Independence of Lithuania – was lost during the second world war and the Soviet occupation, but was recently recovered from German archives.

“The significance of the Independence Act for the people of Lithuania is indescribable: our freedom, coded in each line, word, letter, or even its curvature encodes our freedom,” said Ignas Kozlov, creative director of Folk, which is based in Lithuania.

Over a six-month period, Folk worked alongside font designer Eimantas Paskonis to create the typeface, which is made up of a series of italic, calligraphic-style letters.

The process saw letters from Saulys’ handwriting be redrawn several times to create variations of both letters and numbers.

Additional written works by Saulys were also consulted to compensate for “missing letters” in the original document.

“The main challenge was conveying the overall appearance of the handwriting as the referenced document writing is quite disruptive, and some letters are written and merged in several ways,” said the designers.

A total of 450 individual symbols were made to achieve a handwritten effect, using a combination of the Latin, German and Lithuanian alphabets.

Signato is available to download on Font’s website – however, it is not intended for commercial use but rather to “empower a nation that is turning another page in its history”.

In conjunction with the font’s release, the agency invited Lithuanians around the world to sign an online version of the Reinstated Independence Act using Signato.

Afterwards, a robot will write a book in Signato that will include a modern reaffirmation of the act. The country’s Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis has also chosen to adopt the typeface for the entire year.

“We wanted to pull the independence out of the glass-protected display and pass it on to people so that they can use it, share it and create a future story,” said Kozlov.

“Freedom is not a document, freedom is an opportunity to express and share your thoughts with others around the world,” he explained.

Folk’s typeface comes months after graphic designer Vladan Pavlović’s created a new visual identity for Serbia, that presents the Balkan country as one of “peace, democracy and tolerance”.

Stockholm studio Snask completed a similar undertaking for North Korea, giving it a heart motif designed to create a “common feeling of belonging”.

The post Signato typeface celebrates 100 years of Lithuania’s independence declaration appeared first on Dezeen.

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The Popsicle keeps you cool in an entirely different way that the name suggests! It’s a first-ever personal fan that actually looks pretty cool for once! I usually imagine the people using portable fans as the same who wear fanny packs. It’s usually the cherry on top of a touristy look. However, the Popsicle’s playful form is just plain adorable!

It takes on the exaggerated form of a frozen treat and features a cute leather strap so you can attach it to your keychain or wrist. Just keep it recharged to enjoy a cooling breeze you can take anywhere. While it will be tempting for some to lick (people sticking their tongues in fans is a real obsession – Google it!), our advice is NOT to!

Designer: 7 nepo