While your Arden edition might be a little easier in the hands, The Folio Society’s new Letterpress Shakespeare titles are a typographic indulgence that attempt a renewed engagement with the bard’s plays and sonnets…
The Society’s aim is to present Shakespeare’s words “in their purest form” and so the pages of each of the plays are devoid of the clutter of notes and glossaries, unlike most regular editions of the playwright’s work.
Of course, for most readers these elements are more than useful, so an accompanying “commentary” edition of the play is also included in each boxed set.
Therefore what the reader encounters in the large-format main edition is just the text: and in 16 point Monotype Baskerville, printed by letterpress onto thick, mould-made paper with feathered – ‘deckled’ – edges, it’s a treat to behold.
This aspect is the real highlight of the project – and the most labour intensive. Each volume was apparently printed just two pages at a time, each page having been put together by a skilled compositor at Gloucester Typesetting Services in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire.
This method, with this paper, means that the words are impressed deep into the page. I had a close look at a copy of King Lear and the quality of the lettering on the paper is sublime.
On the outside, each book is quarter-bound in leather with individually hand-marbled paper sides – complete with gilded top edges and a ribbon marker. The plays are divided into three colours: a dark purple-blue for the histories; red for tragedies; and green for comedies.
The solander box which houses everything continues the ‘traditional’ look and if anything is perhaps a bit on the pragmatic side – sturdy no doubt, but it’s overtly functional-looking, which jars a little with the hand-crafted nature of the type and paper within.
Needless to say, with only 300 copies of each volume available, they don’t come cheap: each play is £295; the volume of sonnets and poems, £345; the complete set coming in at £11,555.
So while hardly bringing Shakespeare to a wider audience – there are plenty of other publishers that can do that – these editions do at least honour the quality of the writing within. And there’s something about reading the text on the page without distraction that makes it a worthwhile experience, too.
Folio Society titles are available for purchase from foliosociety.com, by telephone on +44 (0)207 400 4200, or by visiting The Folio Society Bookshop, 44 Eagle Street, London WC1R 4FS.
With the film opening in the UK today, we have ten copies of Empire Design‘s fantastic illustrated poster for The Double to give away (detail shown, above). Click through to see how you can win one…
Starring Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska, the Double is based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same name and follows the story of a rather awkward fellow (Eisenberg), driven to despair after his life is usurped by someone who looks exactly like him, but is his behavioural opposite.
In our post about the eye-catching new photographic posters created for the film, Empire say that the illustrated version (above) was inspired by one created for Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps which also features bold 3D type.
In keeping with the darkness and claustrophobic atmosphere of the photographic versions, the illustrated cityscape is lit solely by a spotlight shining on a lone protagonist. Empire art director John Calvert worked on the poster with illustrator Warren Holder – the full version is shown below.
And we have ten copies of the illustrated poster to give away, courtesy of StudioCanal.
To win one all you have to do is come up with a suitable title for a film of any genre starring a designer, or with design as its subject. Puns are more than welcomed. The Kern of the Screw, Dr Embargo, or even The Man With the Golden Swatch, for example, could easily be ones you might not want to use.
And, really, we know you can do much better.
So leave your film title suggestions in the comments below, along with your name and email address, and we’ll pick our top five and annouce the winners next week. The deadline for entries is 10am GMT on Monday April 7.
The Double is in UK cinemas today. See more of Empire’s work here.
Ireland’s creative community has launched an online archive documenting visual communications in the country. We spoke to designer David Wall about the project…
At this year’s Offset conference in Dublin last month, the three-day schedule featured a range of talks from Irish creatives: photographer Richard Mosse discussed his stunning images from Eastern Congo, Chris Judge spoke about his award-winning children’s book, The Lonely Beast, and street artist Maser reflected on his colourful and thought provoking public artworks. On smaller stages, studios and educators spoke about their creative heroes, getting commissioned and judging good design – and several mentioned the 100 Archive.
The 100 Archive is a website documenting visual communications in Ireland – from illustration and animation to album covers, packaging, identities, exhibition graphics and logos.
The site is divided into two parts: 100 Future, which acts as a rolling record of contemporary professional work in the country and 100 Past; an archive of the 100 finest projects submitted each year, as well as examples of great graphic design and communications dating back to the 1960s.
The project was initiated by four Dublin studios – Atelier, Conor & David, Detail and Studio AAD. Atelier founder David Smith first suggested the idea at AGI Open in Barcelona in 2011, when he became the first Irish member of AGI, followed by Johnny Kelly a year later.
The archive was officially launched late last year and since then, it has received hundreds of submissions: a curatorial panel are in the process of judging the finest projects from 2010-13 for 100 Past, which launches next month, and they have also trawled archives and personal collections for interesting items from the past five decades.
“Ireland has a rich visual culture and history of visual communication,” says Conor & David co-founder David Wall. “Design competitions have played a vital role in the setting and raising of standards, but they haven’t left us with an extensive record of the work done here. The ultimate goal of the 100 Archive is to establish such a record,” he adds.
To submit work to the 100 Archive, creatives pay a 20 Euro fee and their entry is assessed by a professional panel who decide if it’s suitable. The panel is currently made up of Johnny Kelly, Alastair Keady (Hexhibit), Susan Murphy (Ogilvy & Mather), Gillian Reidy (Penhouse) and Eamon Spelmen (Limerick School of Art & Design).
The criteria for submissions is broad, says Wall, and any work that has been produced in response to a commission and led by an Irish designer or created in Ireland, is eligible.
“If the work can be described as any of the following: good, interesting, different, unexpected, simple, modest, clear, well executed, considered, culturally relevant or noteworthy, it can be added to 100 Future,” he adds. If three out of five judges opt to include a project then it is uploaded, and judges aren’t aware of how their peers have voted.
There are local and global awards schemes for Irish creatives who’d like to see their work recognised, of course – some of which are documented online – but Wall says that as a non-competitive scheme, the 100 Archive offers something quite different and is more inclusive.
“As a non-competitive space for showcasing work, the archive offers a celebration of graphic design rather than the exaltation of a small group. Crediting of work is centred around individuals…so as the archive grows, it offers a rich history of the people behind the practice,” he says. “For those at one removed from the day-to-day industry here — whether they’re students or designers based abroad — the Archive [also] provides an overview of ongoing work here,” he adds.
The 100 projects added to 100 Past each year are chosen by an additional curatorial panel, which will change every three years. The current line-up consists of Brenda Dermody, Gerard Fox, Oonagh Young, Linda King and Liam McComish, who have also been responsible for sourcing historical work from archives and personal collections.
As well as its core staff, the site lists a number of ‘founders’ who have made the site’s launch possible through donations. The team has received hundreds of submissions for inclusion so far and Wall says many have dedicated their own time and resources to sourcing archive material. These objects will be launched on 100 Past later this year, says Wall, and include packaging, album artwork and editorial design.
“One of the things I’m most looking forward to seeing is the evolution of the Tayto pack. Tayto is one of Ireland’s longest established crisp brands — their packaging has passed through the hands of many designers over the years so that will make an interesting case study,” he says.
“Another gem that has come to light is Campaign magazine, which came to us from ICAD. They are the oldest representative body for creatives in Ireland and have been working with us to identify projects and individuals of merit from their extensive archive – Campaign was their magazine in the 1960s and 1970s and some of the cover designs are a joy to behold,” he adds.
More recent examples include the cover of U2’s Boy, designed by Steve Averill, which Wall says is one of his earliest memories of graphic design. “I remember being struck by the image on the cassette cover when I was barely older than the boy pictured on it. Steve’s son Jon is also a practicing designer, and part of the 100 Archive community too.”
The 100 Archive is a community project, and Wall says the response to the site has been overwhelming. “At each step, we’ve found more and more people who are willing to help – one of the exciting parts of the process has been to forge new connections with designers whose work I knew but didn’t previously know personally,” he adds. In the future, he hopes there will be an exhibition of featured work from the 100 Archive, too.
It’s an interesting model and The 100 Archive provides a great platform for the country’s designers to share their achievements, work together and review their practice on a regular basis. The site should also prove a valuable source of inspiration for aspiring creatives, and a useful reference point for designers based abroad.
Images (from top): Dublin UNESCO City of Literature Stamp by The Stone Twins; What Happens Next is a Secret exhibition catalogue by Ciaran OGaora; Insular typeface by Naoise Ó Conchubhair; Le Cool exhibition poster by Rory McCormick and Rossi McAuley; Back to the Start by Johnny Kelly; DIT Masters of Arts programme by Cian McKenna; Ard Bia cookbook by Me&Him&You; David Smith & Oran Day’s artwork for Ghost Maps; Wayne Daly’s Archizines; a 1963 cover of Campaign magazine; album artwork for U2’s Boy; AGI Open identity by Dan Flynn, album art for Dulra by David Donohoe studio and The Lonely Beast ABC app by Chris Judge. For more info on each project see the100archive.com
Filmed during an early morning in the capital by designer Tom Williams, a road painter exhibits some effortless heavy duty lettering skills…
According to Williams’ Vimeo page, which recently attracted the attention of Brand New, the short clip was uploaded two years ago but it remains an interesting document of some largely unseen typographic practice.
“I could see them moving down the road painting some other road signs, and knew there was supposed to be a BUS STOP sign in that spot, so I set the tripod and camera up and waited for them to start,” Williams writes on the post.
Aside from the captivating way the letters are turned out – for me the ‘S’ is the highlight, as is the way the signpainter keeps one arm behind his back – it’s impressive to see this is all done without a stencil.
There appear to be some faint chalk marks on the ground, but other than having a length of wood as an additional guide, it’s freehand work.
“They block out the area of each letter pretty roughly as you can see,” writes Williams, “then just freehand within that. No stencilling.”
According to page 106 of the Traffic Signs Manual (available as a PDF here), at a given stop the words ‘BUS STOP’ must be marked out every complete length of 12m.
(If anyone knows what kind of material is being used to paint the text onto the road surface – plastic, an epoxy? – we’d be happy to hear from you in the comments below.)
UPDATE – “Ed” in the comments says “the material used is 200ºC Thermoplastic with glass beads mixed in so as to be reflective. The thing he’s ‘drawing’ with is basically a square bucket with an edge cut off the one side, so it pours when tipped flat and doesn’t when tipped back.”
Ad agency Grey and stationery brand Ryman have launched a free font which they claim could considerably reduce global ink consumption if adopted worldwide. It’s a clever marketing move, but could it really have a significant environmental impact? We asked designer Dan Rhatigan and Grey’s ECD Nils Leonard about its green credentials and how it differs to existing fonts…
Last Saturday, Grey London announced that it had teamed up with Ryman to launch a free eco-friendly typeface designed by Monotype’s Dan Rhatigan.
Described as “the world’s most beautiful sustainable font”, Ryman Eco’s characters are made up of fine key lines rather than a single solid stroke. At display size, the gaps in these letters are visible but at 8, 9 or 10pt, they are filled by ink splatter or bleeding, making it look like a normal serif.
In tests carried out using Monotype’s Font Explorer Pro tool, Grey claims Ryman Eco used around 30 per cent less ink than Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia and Verdana, and the agency is now adopting it as its default font. If the rest of the world followed suit, Grey claims we could save over 490 million ink cartridges and 15 million barrels of oil.
Grey ECD Nils Leonard said the agency came up with the idea for Ryman Eco when looking at businesses and industries that could benefit from reducing their carbon footprint. Leonard tweeted Ryman’s owner Theo Paphitis about the idea and a little over a year later, it was released.
Of course, Ryman Eco isn’t the world’s first ‘eco-friendly’ typeface – Dutch company SPRANQ has won numerous awards for its Eco Font type family, released in 2008, which uses holes in letters to reduce ink waste. But Leonard and Rhatigan claim that Ryman Eco is more efficient (in testing, they say, Ryman Eco uses considerably less ink than “the leading sustainable brand”) and more aesthetically pleasing than its rivals.
“I feel other eco-friendly fonts have compromised on design,” says Leonard. “If you use them for anything other than an invoice, they’re just not very pretty. [With Ryman Eco], we wanted to create something that looks like a classic serif from a distance but is also a beautiful font to work with when you blow it up. It was critical that it wasn’t just functional,” he adds.
Ryman Eco’s more detailed letterforms won’t be seen as a selling point for all, though. Eco Font was designed to be suitable for use in any context, at any size, by any company, without proving a distraction or looking out of place. Ryman Eco’s decorative appearance, however, particularly at larger sizes, may mean some organisations deem it inappropriate for widespread adoption.
Rhatigan and Leonard are adimant, however, that this will not impact people’s willingness to try out Ryman Eco. If anything, Rhatigan says it will encourage people to use it, because it’s more visually interesting and beautiful to look at than other ‘green’ fonts available.
The environmental impact of printing has, of course, been a headline topic this week: 14-year-old Pittsburgh student Suvir Mirchandani’s claim that the US Government could save $400 million if it switched from Times New Roman to Garamond has made the front page of news sites around the world.
Mirchandani’s estimate has ben questioned – for a start, it appears to be based on the US government using standard inkjet printers – but his research highlights the point that even small changes to our daily ink consumption could have a dramatic long-term impact, given the amount we continue to print in a supposedly digital age.
His research also raises the question, why don’t we all just use existing ‘lighter’ typefaces such as Garamond or Century Gothic, which the University of Green Bay-Wisconsin adopted as an alternative to Arial in 2010, rather than a new design like Ryman Eco?
Rhatigan and Leonard acknowledge that doing so could reduce companies’ ink consumption, but Rhatigan says that the problem with traditional ‘lighter’ fonts is that their faint strokes are difficult to read at small sizes.
“Garamond is an elegant display type but it’s just not suitable for reading at five or six points,” he says. “When we tested Ryman Eco’s ink usage, it beat everything but hairline display fonts, which just aren’t suitable for small text.”
When designing Ryman Eco, Rhatigan says legibility was his key concern – he was inspired in part by the Linotype Legibility Group, a classic series of typefaces designed for use in newspaper columns, but later realised that they wouldn’t work well on one column layouts, so studied more contemporary typefaces such as Georgia and New Century Schoolbook.
“Essentially, we looked for great examples of legible styles then worked out how we could create a similarly versatile model in the most efficient way possible,” he adds.
Leonard also believes that merely switching to a lighter typeface such as Garamond or Century Gothic is a bit of a half-hearted compromise. “Garamond might be better than something else, but why not try and make something better than Garamond? We should be aiming to use the most efficient fonts possible,” he says.
Ryman Eco isn’t a purely philanthropic venture – having Ryman’s name appear in font books and drop-down menus around the world would provide priceless publicity, and by launching a sustainable font, the company is seen to be addressing the negative impact of its printers and cartridges by attempting to offset it. But both Rhatigan and Leonard say Ryman Eco is more than a gimmick.
“We wanted to make something experimental and constructive, a tool that can help people reduce consumption and gets them thinking about waste,” says Rhatigan.
Linotype’s Legibility Group
If we really want to save large amounts of resources, of course, we should all just stop printing unless absolutely necessary, but as long as people continue to print, any free products aimed at reducing its environmental impact are surely a good thing.
There is no Ryman Eco Sans, but webfont versions have been released and Leonard and Rhatigan say they are keen to keep developing the font, and working with other designers to do so.
“I’d like to see eco fonts become a category, in the same way you have sans and serifs, and I hope it will get people talking about and investing in them,” says Leonard.
US and Norway-based studio Non-Format has produced a striking poster for Tokyo Type Directors Club’s annual showcase featuring intricate 3D lettering and a Japanese-inspired custom typeface.
The annual exhibition is on display at the Ginza Graphic Gallery in Tokyo, and showcases the winning work from this year’s TTDC awards. Non-Format was asked to design a poster promoting the event and created a series of highly detailed ‘sculptural’ letters using Cinema 4D software.
“It was an honour, not to mention a daunting prospect, to be invited to create the poster for the 2014 exhibitions. The brief was pretty open and we knew that the audience for these events are extremely visually literate and open-minded, so we felt we had an obligation to push ourselves and to test out some new ideas and techniques,” say studio founders Jon Forss and Kjell Ekhorn.
“We’ve recently been exploring new areas of digital imagery, in particular, the vast arena of 3D, so we took this project as an opportunity to try out some new ideas…and just wander off into the unknown for a while,” they add.
Letters are designed to create a strong impact from a distance and reward viewers with intricate details on closer inspection, say Forss and Eckhorn. “There’s a lot of detail in the surface texture itself but we added quite a lot of extra photographic elements to create as rich a visual experience as we could.”
The work appears on B1 and B2 posters as well as A4 flyers, alongside a bespoke typeface with step motif and e’s bearing an extra horizontal stroke.
Forss and Ekhorn first designed a family of typefaces with an extra stroke when working on their monograph, Love Song, back in 2006, and say that as the idea came from looking at the structure of modern sans serif Japanese characters, it felt “only right and proper” to adopt the same style for their TDC posters.
The step motif is inspired by the work of Wolfgang Weingart and was previously used by the studio in a custom typeface for Sølve Sundsbø’s Rosie & 21 Men exhibition at Oslo’s Shoot Gallery:
“This uses a softer wavy line instead of the harder-edged zigzag that we incorporated into the typeface for the TDC project, but they are certainly typographic siblings,” they explain.
“We included the zigzag [in the TDC font] partly as our nod to postmodernist revivalism and partly because we think it adds quite an interesting texture to the poster as a whole.”
Non-Format has also designed an intriguing animated teaser for photographer Stephen Gill’s Shoot Gallery exhibition, Talking to Ants:
The film begins with a jumble of tumbling lines, shapes and dots, which are gradually rearranged to spell out Gill’s name and the show’s title. Visuals are set to a soundtrack from Bristol composer Zoon van snooK which features a recording of children playing.
It’s an interesting take on an exhibition preview and an inventive way of presenting key themes in an artist’s work without showing much of the work itself.
“We…produced a teaser video for each of Shoot’s three exhibitions [at Shoot Gallery],” explain Forss and Eckhorn. “These videos usually focus on showcasing the photography work itself but, as we were given only one image to work with, we shifted the emphasis towards a solely typographic approach…Our intention was to echo some of the randomness and accidental compositional chaos of Gill’s photographic work,” they add.
Sheffield studio Peter & Paul has designed a new visual identity for Leeds College of Art based on a mosaic above the entrance of its Vernon Street building.
The new identity has been applied to prospectuses and a website designed by Leeds agency Enjoy Digital. Both feature coloured shapes that represent fragments of the mosaic.
The mosaic has formed part of the college’s identity for some time – an image of it was often used in communications – but Peter & Paul felt this image was too restrictive.
“It’s a large scale and intricate mosaic that is cherished by many of the faculty and board members within the college,” explains creative director Paul Reardon. “It represents values of craft, excellence [and] history, but doesn’t fully represent the output of the college in its modern context, and the output of students – [both] their ideas and the tools and methods that they work with,” he adds.
“There was also a bigger issue with the practicality of usage: it’s so defining as an image that it can feel quite disconnected when placed [alongside] other types of artwork, and reproduction at small sizes is also an issue, so it becomes prohibitive in how it can be applied to marketing materials,” he says.
While the college agreed its current system needed updating, however, it also felt it was important to retain a reference to Eric Taylor’s mosaic, so Peter & Paul redrew four single tiles from the piece and used them to create a series of abstract patterns. Shapes can be arranged in various formations and combined with the college logo or imagery.
The studio also worked with Fontsmith to refine the college’s logotype, which had been lifted directly from the mosaic. “We modified it for better reproduction in print and digital, whilst still retaining some subtle quirks and character of the original,” he says.
The updated logo now features the year in which the college was founded, which Reardon says is a small but significant addition. “Jacob Kramer, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore famously studied at Leeds College of Art, Damian Hirst began his education here, as did Marcus Harvey, [and] Si Scott. The date signifies the rich history of the college and the pedigree of its alumni,” he adds.
The college’s new scheme includes four key palettes made up of four colours, and each represents a key theme: ideas, debate, progress and craft, says Reardon.
“It’s hard to encapsulate these themes in colour as everyone will have a different view [on them], so we looked at objects, sculptures and artworks that inspired us around those,” he says.
“We also came up with the idea for an app where you could take a picture of anything that inspired you and it would fragment the image into a very simple mosaic, so you could instantly put simple palettes together,” he says.
As well as working on signage, wayfinding and murals around the college, Peter & Paul is developing a large scale graphic timeline of alumni, which may be made into a sculpture.
The project is still in its early stages, but it will be interesting to see how Peter & Paul applies the system to artworks and additional communications. It’s a simple but effective solution and one that gives the college a more unified and contemporary identity, without losing all reference to its past.
London foundry Colophon has commercially released its Castledown Type Family, which has been shortlisted for the Design Museum’s Design of the Year Award 2014.
Castledown was designed by Colophon founders Anthony Sheret and Edd Harrington and is intended to help young children read and write. It’s available in eight cuts from regular to heavyweight and comes with additional cursive and dotted versions to help pupils practice their handwriting.
Sheret and Harrington have been working on Castledown since early 2012. The type family was created for Castledown Primary School in East Sussex at the request of headmaster Neil Small, who was “sick of using Comic Sans,” says Sheret.
“Neil wanted something that was clear and legible but still friendly, and had secondary options [such as bold versions] that the school could use in any situation,” he adds.
While Comic Sans is widely used in many UK schools, it is problematic: letters are crooked and it’s not suitable for use in serious contexts, such as letters about bad behaviour or sensitive issues, explains Sheret. Alternative fonts often also have a double storey ‘a’.
Castledown, however, has a single story ‘a’ and has been designed in line with how children are taught to write. Letters have also been slightly weighted at the bottom, which aids children with dyslexia or other reading issues by curbing the brain’s ability to reverse letters.
Before designing the typeface, Sheret and Harrington held a series of workshops with Castledown pupils to gauge their opinions on various fonts and letterforms. “We showed them a range of fonts, asked them which they liked and which they didn’t, and spoke to them about their cursive handwriting exercises and homework,” says Sheret.
“Conducting research within an institution, particularly an educational one was different to how we normally work,” he adds. “The process was also in two-parts — when working on our standard commercial releases, they are slow burners that are split tasks, but because this family would be implemented into schools we first worked on the proportional side of the family, and [then] the cursive.”
The first versions of Castledown were released last summer and the typeface has since been implemented throughout the school with a positive response from pupils and staff. Sheret and Harrington have since been working on the additional cuts and plan to release a Castledown handwriting app and wooden stencils.
“It’d be nice to see it take off in other schools too. We’d like to offer a complete educational package [with wooden letters and an app]. We kind of think of this as the Jamie’s Dinners of school fonts,” says Sheret.
Castledown is currently on display at the Design Museum’s Designs of the Year exhibition and Colophon has released a limited edition specimen book to celebrate its release.
Colophon is also hosting an exhibition at KK Outlet next month to celebrate the foundry’s fifth birthday and will be showcasing designs by Anthony Burrill, Studio Makgill and Dries Wiewauters. For details, see kkoutlet.com
The Design Museum’s Designs of the Year show opened last night. As usual, there’s an eclectic array of projects, from the worthy to the quirky, but it’s difficult to spot a frontrunner for the big prize
If anyone’s ever challenged you with the old “what is design?” question, sending them along to the Design Museum show would be a good place to start. Its breadth, from fashion to vehicle design (Sadie Williams dress and VW XL1 car shown above), type to architecture really brings home the multifacted potential of design today.
Model of Makoko Floating School
But this diversity also poses a problem for the judges who convene on Monday March 31 with the unenviable task of choosing a Design of the Year. Comparing projects so different in intent, scale and budget is enormously difficult.
That difficulty has been offset in previous years by the presence of an obvious frontrunner at an early stage – One Laptop Per Child, for example, or last year’s winner, Gov.UK. Looking round the show last night, it was hard to think of an equivalently obvious candidate (see our post on the nominees here) but I’d suggest the ABC syringe which changes colour when exposed to air thus alerting users to its pre-use or potential exposure to infection, might fit the bill.
e-Go single-seater aircraft byGiotto Castelli, Tony Bishop, Rob Martin and Malcolm Bird
One thing that does stand out for me this year is the exhibition design. This is a really difficult show to pull together coherently. This year’s designers, Hunting & Narud with visual identity and graphic design by OK-RM, have headlined each project with a one-line explanation of its purpose: ‘A tactile watch for blind people’, for example, or ‘An identity built around the letter W’.
This proves to be a simple and highly effective way of drawing in the visitor to the more detailed information on each project which is presented on cards atop long thin stems next to each piece. It also provides a kind of snapshot sense of what the show is all about as you look aroudn the room – great ideas to improve our lives. But which deserves to be Design of the Year?
MEWE car, Musem Jumex model
Hybrid 24 electric bicycle by A2B
Iro Collection by Jo Nagasaka.
Prada SS14 Collection by Miuccia Prada. All above images by Luke Hayes
Grand-Central by Thibault Brevet
Vitamins’ Lego Calendar and Anthony Sheret, Edd Harrington and Rupert Dunk’s Castledown Primary School Type Family
YCN has launched a new visual identity overseen by Matt Willey and changed the meaning of its initials from Young Creative Network to ‘You Can Now’.
The new system and brand message were launched to reflect the organisation’s growth since it was founded in 2001. It was originally set up as an annual awards scheme for new talent and now runs a number of events and a members’ magazine.
Willey was asked to work on the identity after re-designing YCN’s magazine last summer, and founder Nick Defty says he has been working on it since the end of last year.
YCN’s old logo
“YCN has grown and changed so much in recent years…we wanted to signal this change [and] it felt like the perfect moment to look at our visual identity. The old didn’t express the idea of ‘You Can Now’, either graphically or in words,” he adds.
The new logo features a bespoke typeface. Klim font Founders has also been applied to print communications and YCN’s website. “We wanted something that felt ‘freshly smart’ – something to communicate the spirit, positivity and energy at the heart of YCN, but also the professionalism at the heart of everything we do,” he says.
The new design
“We have deliberately kept to a black and white palette given the riot of colour that comes from the content we frame. That’s not to say we might not use our new logo in colour in the future; but it feels great in black,” he adds.
While the logo appears only in black or white, members can choose from a range of colourful membership card designs, created by other YCN members.
“We have always loved the idea of people choosing their own card designs, and the card offers the perfect place to present the work of people from among our membership…we plan to regularly add new designs to the selection,” says Defty.
The organisation has also been working with London studio Hover on a series of animated icons to help show the various services YCN offers members. “[The icons] are suggestive of creativity and the things we help our members do: whether its connecting with each other or a new client. We will continue to use these playfully over time,” adds Defty.
Animated versions of the logo will be used in a series of online ‘peer guides’, advising members on issues such as price commissions.
It’s a versatile design which should serve YCN well both online and in print, and the animated icons provide the brand with a flexible but coherent system through which to advertise its various services. The company has also launched a new membership scheme, introducing a flat annual fee of £69.
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