Hasta La Ideas

Sheffield-based studio Sanderson Bob were behind the branding for Nike’s recent World Basketball Festival and used a range of glyphs from different languages to add international flavour to the typography…

“We felt the branding and typography had to symbolise the ‘World’ aspect subtly; no globes or flags,” says the studio’s Bob Sanderson. “We decided to borrow from world language glyphs to do this. It had to be an interesting enough idea to work on its own as the branding for the event, and also create a typographic style that could sit well with other elements.”

“The typography isn’t over styled but was custom-made for the event. It was important not to over complicate the solution as it had many applications. The final outcome is, we think, a beautiful, balanced project combining type and illustration.”

Taking a bit of license with the odd cedilla and accent here and there, the studio used various glyphs from different languages more as visual motifs, creating a more global feel to the typography in the process.

The illustrations that feature in the campaign are by Saiman Chow.

Sanderson Bob has also recently completed a new book for the US sportswear giant that, at 20″x 20″ and 40lbs, covers the history of Nike, Converse and Jordan.

More at sandersonbob.com.

Branding and Typography: Sanderson Bob
Illustrations: Saiman Chow
Art Director: Michael Spoljaric at Nike