Hasta La Ideas

Sagmeister & Walsh has designed a new visual identity for US engineering company Function featuring an animated type system and extensive set of icons.

Function specialises in mechanical design for product development, including entertainment, computing, robotic and medical equipment. The new identity was commissioned to mark the company’s 25th anniversary and is the first brand refresh Function has undergone in 15 years.

As well as updating the company’s logo (a gear symbol), Sagmeister & Walsh designed a new word mark for the company and an animated hinge and pivot type system, representing Function’s expertise in creating hinge and linkage mechanisms. The studio also produced a series of patterns and icons to be used on promotional material and is working on a new Function website.

“The goal was to capture the company’s focus on mechanical design for product development and elicit a sense of joy in the details,” says Function business development manager Lori Hobson. “Various treatments of a gear had served as the company’s mark since its founding, so bringing this up to date and adding a typographical treatment of the Function name were two considerations for the project,” Hobson adds.

Jessica Walsh, who art directed the project, says the identity reflects Function’s desire to communicate “a respect for design…while still being purposeful and technical.”

“We started with the Function word mark..[and] using the exact elements that went into constructing the Function typography, created a series of icons which worked within the same system. We then collaborated with Joel to create the animations over a several week period,” she says.

“We focused on engineering symbols, robot, tools and technical icons to represent the different services the company provides. From there we created general icons which could be useful on the web or in their materials, [and] took the system a step further by developing a series of patterns based on these icons,” she adds. (Interesting how many schemes these days include sets of graphic patterns.)

Function’s new identity is a versatile system and one that perfectly communicates the company’s ethos in an elegant way. It’s got plenty of hi-tech cool as befits a Silicon Valley headquartered outfit.

There have been some suggestions that the logotype and symbol are reminiscent of Ed Nacional‘s work for online learning resource Skillshare but for us they are clearly different, the Function work being derived from the idea of gearing and links in bicycle chains and expressed in three dimensions. It’s a long way from traditional metal-bashing but this is a company whose forte is new product development, including robotics and high-level electronics. Appropriately, Sagmeister & Walsh have given them a really nicely put together system.

Credits

Creative direction: Stefan Sagmeister
Art direction & design: Jessica Walsh
Design: Wade Jeffree
Animation: Joel Voelker

James Kennedy, Kennedy City Bicycles

Images from Julian Love’s Handmade London project feature in our current Photography Annual issue and the photographer has just launched the accompanying book, which contains some great pictures of contemporary artisanal activity…

The personal project, which Love finished shooting in October, has been made into a limited edition letterpress book featuring 14 people from the series.

The book is designed and illustrated by Helen Mair with letterpress and hand-stitching by Simon Goode of the London Centre for Book Arts, who also features inside the book.

Photographed in their studios and workshops, the subjects include James Kennedy (at top of post), a Clapton-based bike builder (he makes ten bikes a week); smokery owner Ole Hansen of Hansen & Lydersen; and Rob Court of bespoke neon lighting company, Creative Neon.

The complete series to date can be seen at Love’s website, handmade-london.com; shown here are eight examples of modern-day craftsmen and women who make things the old fashioned way.

Naomi Paul, Naomi Paul Ltd

Daniel Harris, London Cloth Company

Jessica de Lotz, Jessica de Lotz Jewellery

Michael Ruh, Michael Ruh Studio

Marco Lawrence, Print Club London

Camilla Goddard, Capital Bee

Simon Goode, London Centre for Book Arts

Further images of the book are here. See handmade-london.com. Julian Love is represented by the Lisa Pritchard agency.

This month sees another fine set of reissues from Penguin – GK Chesterton’s Father Brown series, designed in-house by Matthew Young with a nod to the influential work of Romek Marber…

In 2010, Young was chosen as one of CR’s graduates to watch and since then he has been working away as a book cover designer for Penguin and an animator. His latest project was to produce the covers for a new set of five editions of GK Chesteron’s Father Brown crime novels.

Young says that initially the design approach had two potentially routes: one was to incorporate Magritte paintings into the workl, while the other was a more graphic approach with “a healthy dose of inspiration from Romek Marber’s iconic covers for Penguin in the 1960s”.

“Chesterton’s Father Brown stories have always, in my opinion, been packaged somewhat unfairly,” says Young. “There’s always so much emphasis on the fact that he’s a priest, it’s all dog-collars and bibles – and it makes the books look very old-fashioned, safe, twee, and a bit boring, when in fact they’re full of wit and suspense and character.

“And yes he’s a priest, and yes that’s why he makes such an unlikely (but brilliant) detective, but there’s so much more to these stories that often doesn’t get represented.”

Two Father Brown covers design by Romek Marber

When Young researched the series, he says that two particularly covers jumped out – The Innocence of Father Brown and The Incredulity of Father Brown (above), both designed by Romek Marber for Penguin in the early 60s.

“They’re the only covers I’ve seen that really suggest some of the mystery and the suspense of these stories,” Young says, “and they do so in such a striking way, with a reduced colour palette and bold symbolic illustrations.”

“There’s a great quote from Marber – talking about designing these books – of how Father Brown ‘gets straight to the nub of the case and always gets his man’. And that’s what we wanted to communicate with these new editions.

“There’s always a fine line when taking inspiration from a classic cover design like this – you want to pay a respectful nod to Penguin’s history, and to Romek’s iconic designs, but as a designer you also want to put your own mark on things, and to re-invent these covers for today’s audience.”

Two of the new covers actually re-work original elements from Marber’s designs. The Innocence of Father Brown features the coiling thread from the original cover and The Wisdom of Father Brown makes use of the Marber figure casting a long shadow.

“Taking these two visual elements as my main starting point, I worked all the covers up using the same basic principles,” says Young. “Each cover must only use two colours, feature a figure that represents Father Brown, and use simple, bold, graphic shapes and patterns to symbolise a chase, a journey, a mystery.”

“On each cover Father Brown is deliberately isolated to give the sense that he is an outsider; it’s him against the odds, following an unlikely trail and methodically piecing the clues together. And I didn’t want to dictate exactly what Father Brown looks like – I’d rather this was left open to the reader’s interpretation, so the figures are almost silhouettes, with just enough detail to give him some form, to maybe suggest his build or his shabby robes, but without giving too much away.”

The grid for the typography derives from a by-product of a bigger project to re-design the Penguin Popular Classics, Young explains. “That project never saw the light of day,” he says, “but some small aspects of the designs do live on in these new covers.”

The finished books are each printed in just two colours – one Pantone plus black – on a cream uncoated paper stock. As with the new ‘restored’ edition of A Clockwork Orange, which Barnbrook recently designed, the Chesterton books are in ‘A-format’, the same size as the original Penguin paperbacks.

“Hopefully the books have a certain Penguin charm about them,” Young adds, “whilst also being attractive little objects in their own right.”

Art director: Jim Stoddart. The Father Brown series will be available from Penguin Classics from January 2 next year; £6.99 each. Matthew Young’s book cover work is at mymymy.co.uk.

WWF, Do the Green Thing and Pentagram have launched a competition inviting young creatives to design a poster promoting sustainable living.

Winning submissions will feature in a campaign celebrating Earth Hour on March 29 2014, alongside work from 26 leading creatives. Last year’s contributors included Google creative director Tom Uglow, photographer Dean Chalkey, 2012 Olympic logo designer Patrick Cox and seven Pentagram partners.

The competition is open to all UK residents aged between 16 and 25. Posters can be about anything that promotes sustainability – from walking more to eating less meat – and can use any medium, from graphic design to photography, illustration, advertising and product design.

The deadline for entries is January 13 and finalists will be invited to a creative mentoring session at Pentagram on January 22 to refine their designs. The top three submissions will be decided by a public vote in February.

Entries can be submitted online or through the post – click here for details, or here to see last year’s posters.

Posters (from top): Dean Chalkley, Marina Willer, Karin Rubing and Andrew Rae.

2013 is coming to an end, which means its time to bid farewell to Emerald and welcome Radiant Orchid – Pantone’s colour of the year for 2014.

Also known as 18-3224, the purple hue has been named the shade de rigeur for fashion, interiors and graphic design in the year ahead by Pantone, which says it has spent a year combing the world for colour influences.

While 2013’s chosen shade was a symbol of growth, renewal and prosperity, 2014 offers “a reach across the colour wheel to intrigue the eye and spark the imagination,” says Pantone. “An enchanting harmony of fushcia, purple and pink undertones, Radiant Orchid inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love and health. It is a captivating purple, one that draws you in with its beguiling charm,” it adds.

For those interested in its cosmetic benefits, Pantone says the shade can be paired with lavenders, purples and pinks for an assortment of lipstick and blush options, and Radiant Orchid garments will give both men and women a rosy glow, “making all who wear it feel more healthy and energetic”. Interior designers can use it to complement olive green, teal, turquoise or yellow, or to lift neutrals such as grey and cream.

There’s good news, too, for all you creative types: Radiant Orchid offers “an invitation to innovation,” says Pantone, and encourages “expanded creativity and originality, which is increasingly valued in today’s society.” Quite.

So there you have it: the shade that Pantone says will dominate packaging, product and interior design and the catwalk for the next 12 months. Please do let us know how you’ll incorporate this energising, mind-expanding hue into your lives and in case you were wondering, here’s a list of winners since 2000.

· PANTONE 17-5641 Emerald (2013)

· PANTONE 17-1463 Tangerine Tango (2012)
· PANTONE 18-2120 Honeysuckle (2011)
· PANTONE 15-5519 Turquoise (2010)
· PANTONE 14-0848 Mimosa (2009)
· PANTONE 18-3943 Blue Iris (2008)
· PANTONE 19-1557 Chili Pepper (2007)
· PANTONE 13-1106 Sand Dollar (2006)
· PANTONE 15-5217 Blue Turquoise (2005)
· PANTONE 17-1456 Tigerlily (2004)
· PANTONE 14-4811 Aqua Sky (2003)
· PANTONE 19-1664 True Red (2002)
· PANTONE 17-2031 Fuchsia Rose (2001)
· PANTONE 15-4020 Cerulean (2000)