The rise of streamers like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Apple TV has catalyzed a (New) Golden Age of TV: episodic shows have become more poignant, more engaging, slicker than ever, and more nuanced—honing in on pinpoint cultures and subcultures.

The best of these programs (think Succession, Severance, The White Lotus, Shōgun, The Handmaid’s Tale, Fleabag, The Bear, Beef, and on and on) take cues from the world of cinema and demonstrate a new approach to craft and detail. When we get an ad break, however, people are all too often served generic, cookie-cutter promos that viewers understandably look to mute or skip. Essentially, it is the worst of what we as an industry create.

Given the abundance of talent working in the industry, it’s surprising that the ads surrounding today’s culture-defining shows fall far short. Undoubtedly, those who direct and conceptualize these spots have the ability, talent, and storytelling skills. With streaming now representing over 38% of all TV usage—why the lackluster commercials on streaming platforms?

I’m not looking to start a debate (well, maybe I am!), but the best we collectively have to offer shouldn’t be celebrated by a select few only on the festival circuit. Our most stellar work should delight, entice, and educate in living rooms and bedrooms all year round.

Surely, this is also a debate for the media buyers amongst us, but essentially, audiences are smart, and the quality of what we consume has increased over the past decade (contrary to what David Chase, creator of the greatest show of all time, The Sopranos, has recently said about the decline of episodic content). So, let’s give them the best of what we as an industry have to offer.

Netflix’s optional ad-supported plan, launched in 2022, has amassed 15 million users. Prime Video launched ads this year, and we’ve all read the speculation that even Apple TV+ is now poised to do the same. Safe to say, streamers are increasingly moving towards ad-supported services.

We all know about the Super Bowl effect: the connection between ads and the game transcends inside-industry chat and gets everyone talking about mega-budgets and celebrity brand collabs. But let’s be honest: Are these ads even as great as they once were?

Having been at “industry” Super Bowl parties for the past decade or more, I can assure you it’s not my opinion alone that fewer creative risks have been taken in recent years relying on believed-to-be-proven formulas, often using the same voices who have been directing these spectacle spots for the past decade. Why? Because they seem like the “safe choice.” Many of these ads are good, don’t get me wrong, but are they great?

There’s something we all know: we should be making more great work.

These formulas have become tired and expected, and by using the same directors, the spots generated are frequently obvious and, even worse, predictable. Some get it right; the folks at Highdive come to mind, and my synapses also fire to CeraVe (from Ogilvy and Tim & Eric) and even Tubi out of Mischief.

To go way back, those wonderful Tide ads directed by Traktor and Saatchi & Saatchi are the best semi-recent examples where delight, surprise, craft, cleverness, and inventiveness ruled the day. But I digress. Super Bowl rant aside, we can’t overlook the 529 million viewing minutes achieved by Ted Lasso’s final episode alone. Essentially, the best of what we make should be seen and celebrated on the Super Bowl and streamers alike, but candidly, there’s something we all know: we should be making more great work.

It’s not just streaming viewing figures (quantity) that should be luring brands to strive for creative excellence; it’s also the distinct mindset (quality) of those tuning in. Take Euphoria, a show that’s authentic, raw, and emotive and delivers a viewing experience that resonates at the core. Audiences of shows this good are in a state of heightened emotion, receptive in a way they arguably never have been before.

Epic cinema ads like we used to see would feel very at home on streamers; here are a few other ways to kick-start progress:

Push for greater transparency from streamers: Nielsen has started reporting streaming figures much as it does for linear TV. Additionally, in December, Netflix released a report that shared global hours viewed for nearly its entire library over a six-month period, its most comprehensive breakdown of viewership yet. The writers’ strike has also helped to galvanize change and transparency. Let’s build on this momentum by continuing the push for greater clarity around reporting.

Create narratives: Let’s tap into episodic advertising’s storytelling potential. Consider sequential campaigns that take viewers on an emotional journey they’ll want to invest in.

Don’t go for the safe choice: Invest in pushing the boundaries of creative work; as a rule of thumb, don’t create anything for streamers (or anywhere else) that you wouldn’t be proud to air on linear TV or even during the Super Bowl. Push harder conceptually and take more risks.

Embrace thematic alignment: Some posit that if advertising is high enough quality, it risks disrupting the program itself. Advertisers should rise to this challenge, creating ads so well-made that they enhance the viewing experience. Matching ad themes to the content will tap audiences’ unique emotional state when watching beloved shows.

Brands and beyond: Considering public service announcement films (PSAs), let’s tie them into the content of shows to reach the audiences who need to see them with relevant, targeted, unskippable films. Fentanyl’s rise, for example, is a monstrous and disastrous issue in the US and abroad. A PSA-esque ad for Narcan during Euphoria would save lives.

If we align as an industry to address the mismatch in quality between the majority of ads on streaming platforms and the incredible shows they house, we’ll start a virtuous cycle of more channels, more opportunities, and, in turn, continuously better creative work. We’ll also push back the perceived threats of AI, for example.

In this golden age of TV, it’s time to take cues from the cream of episodic content and create adverts that get people talking, not muting.

Images created by Sibling Rivalry.

That’s why when I came upon photos of the new RIXO location in the Marylebone neighborhood of London, I was instantly captivated and had to learn more about the unique design concept and those behind it.

RIXO is a contemporary clothing boutique specializing in bohemian sundresses and vibrant prints. Their new Marylebone location brings the whimsical energy of their clothing to life, with brightly colored architectural motifs organically illustrated all over its otherwise crisp white walls. The saturated color palette and hand-drawn line quality create a pop-art-like look, infusing the space with a playful take on classical design elements. Illustrator Sam Wood developed this aesthetic in partnership with the design studio Cúpla, helmed by Gemma McCloskey. I reached out to Wood and McCloskey to learn more about the process behind their design concept and what it was like bringing such a fresh take on retail space to fruition.

(This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.)

What was the development process like for this distinct store design concept?

Sam Wood: The initial process was driven by Gemma. She approached me after seeing some of my work with Claridge’s and other clients in the UK and asked me to devise something bold and colorful that told the story of RIXO in a distinctly new way.

GM: When I first stumbled across Sam’s Instagram page, his use of color felt really bright and fresh alongside his beautiful, fluid style. I knew instantly Sam would be perfect for the new Marylebone RIXO; his handwriting lent itself to enveloping the whole space while still allowing it to breathe.

SW: After I had taken a look at the other RIXO stores and got a feel for their story, it was a pleasure to bring something of Marylebone to the space and interpret that in my own line. I spend a lot of time in the area because a local gallery I work with is down the road, so I’m always roaming about looking at the mishmash of architecture from Gothic Revival (which was the basis of the alcoves) to Neoclassical (which was the basis for the floral details). I hope the eventual style reflects the multiplicity of the area and is a playful reference to how I see things existing alongside each other.

What was the rest of the collaboration process like?

GM: We had an initial meeting where I discussed the concept, design, and materials being used in the space. One of the threads from our concept for Marylebone was this nod to classical London architecture; therefore, creating illustrated paneling with a whiff of Jean Cocteau was the foundation of the design. Within this framework, it was important to give Sam the breathing space to be creative, and it was exciting seeing him embrace the concept and bring his own stamp to the design. 

Once we had reached the final internal designs, we decided we needed to use these on the external windows to fully embrace the concept. When Sam was actually onsite doing the mural, it was a very fluid process, and we would discuss colors and tweak a few things with the benefit of actually being in the space. We also added in some of the pendants which sit centrally in the space and look great.

Did you first map out the design digitally and then bring it to life on the store walls? What was it like free-handing the motifs? Nerve-wracking, exhilarating?  

SW: I am a stickler for being analogue early on; I work on full-scale drawings on paper, which gives me an idea of how the motifs will work at scale as well as the tones and quality of line. The client does not always see these, but they are an essential part of how I conceive of a design and have the confidence to execute it. After this, I can mark up the digital renders to hone the design so the client can get a full idea of the vision.

A great deal of forward planning and preparatory drawing goes into making sure that when I put the pen on the wall, it’s all where it should be. That’s an essential collaborative exercise, in this instance, with Gemma, who was fantastic to work with. Building sites are often chaotic places, which is a far cry from my day-to-day in the studio, so yes, it’s a heart-in-mouth moment every time with the first mark on the wall, but I do get a kick out of it!

Is this markers-on-walls technique a style you’ve done before? Or was it specially created and executed for this particular project?  

SW: I’ve used Posca markers for years in various contexts, they have such a nice uniformity of tone, which is ideal for bringing to life a design which needs to keep its clarity and “poppyness.” I used them for the first time in a mural context last year for Bryan O’Sullivan Studio, painting a celestial ceiling which is still on show in their gallery on Brook Street Mayfair.

Ordinarily I use a brush and acrylic when doing murals, so it was fun to what is possible with these works in the medium.

How did you feel at the end of the process after drawing your last line, stepping back, and seeing the completed store? 

SW: It’s always a moment of thinking, “Is it finished now?” There’s always the possibility of another line, filling out this corner, or changing that line. I habitually look for flaws in a work, and the “finished product” is always an opportunity to see how everything has worked together. It’s a strange feeling to hand the thing over— after a couple of days of the room being yours, it now belongs to the client and, of course, the public, who interprets it in their own way. That’s why I love working so spatially— the works sometimes divide people, but once I’m finished, that’s down to the viewers.

What sort of experience do you hope shoppers have when stepping into this RIXO store? What sensations do you hope they feel as they move about the space you all created? 

SW: So much of what I do is about storytelling and creating places where people can escape in some way. Here, the murals are front and center in the design and are a key part of the store’s identity. I hope anyone coming into the space gets a sense of the layers of detail that go into evoking the story that RIXO wants to tell, as well as how my own journey as an artist marries with that.

GM: We want the shoppers to feel invited like they’re stepping into someone’s living room at home. We didn’t want a sterile interior, which can sometimes be intimidating for a shopper. There is also a sense of escapism with the store, which we hope the customers find uplifting.

Unbeknownst to Airbnb at the time, this concept was just the beginning of what would become the company’s newest category and most impressive endeavor yet: Icons.

After the success of the Blockbuster experience, Airbnb pushed this idea of world-building even further by making the Home Alone House bookable on the site and bringing the Barbie Malibu DreamHouse to life last summer. They’ve gone all-in on bringing imagined worlds into reality, launching the first 11 new Icons experiences this week.

“Airbnb’s DNA has always been about inviting people into other people’s worlds,” Global Head of Marketing for Airbnb, Hiroki Asai, told me. “In the beginning, it was sharing homes, and then it became submarines and tugboats and castles, and you really came to Airbnb because you had this world opened up to you. So it was natural for the Barbie house and the Home Alone house to be listed, and I think what struck a chord is people got to participate in these imaginary worlds. That was the impetus for all of this.”

At a celebratory affair in sunny Los Angeles on May 1, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky proudly presented each of the 11 Icons, which he said have been a decade in the making. And you can see why. Each concept is impressive enough, but the execution to bring the experiences to life reaches a new level of audaciousness. “Magic is not limited to our imagination,” Chesky said triumphantly to an awe-inspired crowd as he walked us through each Icon. “Icons take you inside worlds that only existed in your imagination until now.”

The Up! House

At the Icons launch event, it was clear that the Up! house was the room’s favorite—and not just because the house itself was on-site for us to tour. This recreation is an exact replica of the house from the movie, down to the most minuscule detail. “We even had to create our own rust!” Chesky said of the antiquing effect his team created for a zeppelin toy on the mantle.

“We built the house down to its specific Pantone colors and weathering of the shingles to make sure it looks exactly like what was in that film,” said Asai. “The whole house, down to the pill bottles inside and the photos in the hallway and the little chair that Carl rides up the stairs, it’s all reproduced exactly the same. The fireplace even has the ropes coming out of it that you can strum like a guitar, and it makes noise.” And what’s most impressive? This 40,000-pound structure, attached to 8,000 balloons, was built to float 50 feet above the ground in New Mexico. “If we’re going to create a world for Disney fans and Up! fans to come experience, we’re going to make that world as magical as possible,” said Asai.

The Musée d’Orsay

When I asked Asai if he had a favorite of these 11 Icons, he told me without hesitation that it was what the Airbnb team had created at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

This legendary art museum along the River Seine is one of the most historic buildings—a former train station—known for its two massive clocks. Airbnb worked with Mathieu Lehanneur, the designer of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games torch and cauldron, to create a luxurious bedroom in the clock room.

Guests will spend a night at the museum, with private access to the Musée d’Orsay collection, including four of Van Gogh’s most famous works. The stay will also coincide with the Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony, to be held along the River Seine just below the clock tower terrace.

The X-Mansion

Airbnb recreated the X-Mansion to look and feel like you’re stepping into a cartoon. They achieved this by working with artists to painstakingly paint black outlines along the furniture and objects in the house to create a 2D-animated effect. According to Chesky, each prop took over an hour to paint. There are well over 100 objects in the house.

The Ferrari Museum

At the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, Italy, Airbnb built a sleeping experience for those with a need for speed. The bed is crafted from the same leather as Ferrari seats and is surrounded by—you guessed it—Ferraris.

Prince’s Purple Rain House

Until now, the house Prince purchased in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for the film Purple Rain has never been available to the public. Hosts Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman of Prince’s band The Revolution are opening the home’s doors for guests to spend the night in Prince’s restored bedroom from the movie and listen to unreleased Prince tracks.

Game with Khaby Lame

A handful of the Icons are less about the physical spaces and more about the incredible people with whom guests will interact. TikTok creator and gamer Khaby Lame is one such host who will spend the night with guests gaming and eating pizza at his home in Milan.

On Tour with Feid

Reggaeton sensation Feid is bringing guests along for the ride on his FERXXOCALIPSIS World Tour for an entire week. Guests will join the crew for rehearsals, ride along on the eye-catching tour bus that’s decked out with fuzzy green interiors, and get backstage access for every show.

Inside Out 2 Headquarters

To build excitement for the upcoming release of Pixar’s Inside Out 2, Airbnb has brought the famous headquarters of Riley’s emotions to life. Guests can sleep in what they’re calling a “dreamatorium.”

The Kapoor Family Home with Bollywood Star Janhvi Kapoor

Asai told me that the locales of the Icons were imperative, considering that cultural luminaries reside around the globe. “When you look at the icons of music and film and culture and art, they naturally sprout up from all over the globe and across all categories.” Janhvi Kapoor represents one of these cultures as a member of one of Bollywood’s most famous families. She is opening the Kapoor family home in Chennai, India, for the first time and will share her beauty secrets and favorite Southern Indian dishes.

“”From a business perspective, these icons allow us to talk to new audiences and stay relevant,” elaborated Asai. “In the case of someone like Jhanvi Kapoor or Feid, they allow us to talk to not only different generations of our guests but also totally different geographies.”

A Living Room Session with Doja Cat

This Icons experience is about getting intimate access to one of the music’s biggest names. Doja Cat will host a private living session for guests with songs from her latest album.

A Private Comedy Show with Kevin Hart

Superstar stand-up comic Kevin Hart typically performs for sell-out stadium crowds, but this Icons experience offers the opposite. Guests will have a private tequila tasting and comedy show with Hart at the Coramino Live Lounge, with the promise of some of his comedic friends stopping by for a set.

“What Airbnb stands for is human connection, and for us, that’s connection in the real world,” Asai said about the importance of creating physical spaces. “We don’t want to be a platform where people connect behind screens or in any other way except in real life. That’s what travel and sharing, and accommodation are all about: connecting in the real world. So, these experiences are about creating something in the real world, not virtual. But to do that, you have to build something amazing.”

When asked about the most rewarding part of working on a project of this magnitude, Asai told me it was seeing a decade of work from hundreds of people’s efforts finally come to fruition. “When you work on something this long with this many teams that are all working their hardest to do the right thing and the best quality thing that they can, it’s really rewarding to see it all come together,” he said. “Then when you show it to people that have never seen it before, and to be able to appreciate it for the first time through the eyes of someone new to it, it’s unbelievably rewarding.”

In a bold move to capture the essence of the New York City home-buying experience, StreetEasy has partnered with Mother New York to decorate the city streets with Renaissance-style paintings. These visually striking artworks vividly portray the odyssey-like challenge of purchasing a home in the Big Apple.

These ads have become impossible to ignore, as seen on bustling subway cars, iconic yellow taxi toppers, and even a complete takeover of the Broadway-Lafayette station. The campaign has now reached new heights with two hand-painted murals by Colossal Media gracing Wythe & N. 14th St. in Williamsburg and Spring & Lafayette St. in Nolita.

Navigating the real estate market in New York City has always been an adventure, but today, it can feel as elusive as acquiring a masterpiece. Despite the city’s reputation as a haven for renters, StreetEasy’s data reveals a surprising statistic: 1 in 5 New Yorkers are actively browsing homes for sale alongside those searching for rental properties.

As the campaign coincides with the spring home shopping peak, the Renaissance-inspired art style perfectly captures the complex and often dramatic emotions accompanying the search for a place to call home in the city that never sleeps.

“Let The Journey Begin” dramatizes key milestones of the home buyer’s journey in the style of Renaissance art: from deciding whether to renew a lease, searching the five boroughs with an agent at the helm, right up to the moment of getting the keys and becoming your own landlord.

Advertising to New Yorkers is an interesting creative challenge. On one hand, you have a population capable of tuning out almost anything. On the other hand, you have a savvy audience who can appreciate a clever ad that speaks to their experiences, which StreetEasy certainly has a track record of doing. ‘Let The Journey Begin’ touches on a uniquely New York problem and does it in a style that will stand out in the city’s sea of distractions.”

Nedal Ahmed, Executive Creative Director at Mother New York

These murals serve as more than just a visual spectacle; they encapsulate the aspirations, struggles, and triumphs of individuals embarking on the quest for homeownership in one of the world’s most dynamic metropolises. Through their artistry, StreetEasy and Mother New York have not only adorned the streets but have also painted a poignant portrait of the enduring allure and challenges of New York City’s real estate landscape.

Images courtesy of Colossal Media, banner image courtesy of StreetEasy.

The NAD’s latest exhibition, Sites of Impermanence, is set to delight art and architecture enthusiasts as it showcases the works of newly elected National Academicians. Running from February 8 to May 11, 2024, at the Academy’s new permanent location in Chelsea, this exhibition promises a journey through the diverse and thought-provoking creations of eight exceptional artists and architects.

National Academy of Design 2023 Induction Ceremony

Each Academician brings a unique perspective and approach to their craft. These creatives explore contemporary issues through sculpture, drawing, architecture, or interactive installations while delving into the rich tapestry of history that informs their work.

One striking aspect of the exhibition is its exploration of impermanence in various forms. Through a lens of time and space, the artists and architects invite viewers to contemplate the ever-shifting nature of our world. Sanford Biggers and Willie Cole repurpose materials laden with historical significance, infusing them with new cultural and spiritual meanings. Richard Gluckman expands upon existing structures, adapting them to meet the demands of contemporary society.

Top Images, Bottom Left, Bottom Right: Sites of Impermanence | Photo: © Etienne Frossard. Courtesy of National Academy of Design; Bottom Middle: In Tension: The Function of Body in Space with Torkwase Dyson and Sarah Oppenheimer, February 21, 2024 | Photos by Rebecca Smeyne

Others, such as Torkwase Dyson and Carlos Jiménez, delve into pressing ecological and human-centric issues, urging us to reconsider our relationship with the environment. Mel Kendrick‘s sculptures offer a meditation on the passage of time and our perception of place, while Alice Adams explores the intricate layers of architecture and the human body.

Sites of Impermanence | Photo: © Etienne Frossard. Courtesy of National Academy of Design

Central to the exhibition’s premise is Sarah Oppenheimer‘s manipulation of architectural space, challenging visitors to question their own agency within the built environment. By blurring the boundaries between human, object, and architecture, Oppenheimer prompts a reevaluation of our impact on public spaces.

Sites of Impermanence opens the door for cultural dialogue and introspection. Curated by Sara Reisman and Natalia Viera Salgado, this showcase underscores the National Academy of Design’s commitment to fostering artistic excellence and pushing the boundaries of creative expression.

Founded in 1825, the National Academy of Design has long been a champion of the arts in America. With a membership comprising some of the nation’s most esteemed artists and architects, the Academy continues to serve as a beacon of inspiration and reflection. Exhibitions like Sites of Impermanence reinforce the transformative power of art and its capacity to shape society.

Visitors to the National Academy’s Chelsea location are invited to embark on a journey of discovery and contemplation. Sites of Impermanence asks us to explore our place within the ever-evolving landscape of art and architecture.

Founded in 1881 and revered as one of the world’s preeminent orchestras, the BSO has long graced the stages of Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, captivating audiences with masterful compositions by legendary conductors. The Boston Pops has become synonymous with musical excellence, with an illustrious history boasting luminaries like Arthur Fiedler and John Williams, enchanting listeners with iconic performances and annual spectacles. Tanglewood has long been hallowed ground for music aficionados, hosting an array of celebrated artists against an idyllic backdrop in Lenox, Massachusetts.

However, as the BSO sought to bridge the gap between its storied past and a vibrant future, it recognized the need for a contemporary reimagining of its brand identity. Colossus rose to the occasion, infusing the institution’s legacy with modernity while preserving its rich heritage.

The new brand, characterized by warmth and approachability, departs from previous iterations, unifying the BSO’s diverse offerings under a cohesive visual identity. The brand features a color-coded system and two complementary typefaces, blending old-world sophistication with contemporary flair. This rebrand is significant because it focuses on fostering broader audience engagement and accessibility, reflecting the BSO’s commitment to innovation while preserving its legacy and ensuring that classical music remains accessible to all.

Eager to learn more about the strategy and process behind this colossal undertaking, Travis Robertson, Co-Founder and Executive Creative Director of Colossus, and Jesse Needleman, Vice President, Marketing, Sales, & Communications of BSO, happily obliged with an exclusive.

(Conversation edited for length and clarity).

Given the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s history and cultural significance, what were the key challenges and considerations in modernizing its brand identity?

Travis Robertson: This project was equal parts exhilarating and terrifying. Walking in the shadows of giants, our team felt a tremendous sense of pride and the weight of responsibility to get it right. For an institution so steeped in tradition and heritage, changing the course required tremendous strategic alignment, research, and due diligence. We involved key stakeholders, customers, and musicians before putting pen to paper. We ensured that the classical purists and institutional guardians felt heard and represented while also moving forward with something that resonated with the next generation.

We kept harkening back to a quote from Henry Lee Higginson, the American businessman and Civil War veteran who founded the BSO in 1881. He wrote that the institution aimed “to make fair prices for the tickets and then open wide the doors.” With that in mind, we did our best to create an inviting, unpretentious brand identity that also underscored the magnitude and credibility of the music.

On the use of architectural elements as design influences for the new brand identity: Could you elaborate on the significance of this approach and how it reflects the essence of the Boston Symphony Orchestra?

Travis Robertson:

Four disparate pieces of the puzzle had to be solved and, ultimately, unified through the development of the new identity system. Tanglewood: an outdoor music venue nestled in the hills of The Berkshires. Symphony Hall: the iconic building known as an acoustic jewel and home to the BSO. The Boston Pops: the celebratory, popular expression of the symphony known as “America’s Orchestra.” And, of course, the flagship Boston Symphony Orchestra. While musicians come and go, the stage itself has served as the bedrock of consistency throughout the history of the BSO.  You can feel it in the walls of Symphony Hall and the grass of Tanglewood’s infamous Music Shed.

To define the look and feel of the new brand identity, we looked to architecture and the unique sense of space created by each setting to help guide us. After touring each structure, we gravitated toward certain characteristics, shapes, and geometric patterns. We further solidified this idea after viewing the original Symphony Hall blueprints from the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White (1900). We saw that the windows, soffits, and side entry were all built in the same arch shape. We assigned this shape to the BSO and then worked to uncover further geometric signifiers for Pops, Tanglewood, and Symphony Hall. In the end, we arrived at a consistent system rooted in a place of history and authenticity.

To broaden the appeal of classical music to a younger and more diverse audience, how did Colossus approach the task of making the orchestra’s brand more accessible while still maintaining its sense of sophistication and tradition?

Travis Robertson: Great question. Our design team on this project was both young and diverse, ensuring that we weren’t telegraphing uninformed perspectives or misrepresenting things. We also took the time to speak with each audience segmentation- from Classical Purists to Experiential Engagers to Mainstreamers- making sure our approach resonated along the way.

Ultimately, it won’t be the color palette, clever iconography, or playful shape choices that make the orchestra more accessible. We can only pique the interest and pave the path for new audiences. Our work is the outward signal of this institutional evolution. However, the BSO’s programming, innovations, collaborations, and meaningful community partnerships will create a truly impactful and well-rounded step forward. And they’ve made some incredible strides to do just that. It’s been heartening to see the next chapter of this storied institution begin to take shape.

Could you delve deeper into how the selection of specific colors for each sub-brand reflects the unique identity and essence of the disparate entities?

We derived the color palette from the historical lineage of the brand, alongside modern influences and the need to differentiate the four factions of the BSO. Blue for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a foundational colorway for decades. Red for the Boston Pops, with nods to Americana and holiday festivities. Green for Tanglewood is an homage to the lush foliage and natural setting in Lenox, MA. And gold for Symphony Hall, based on the iconic building’s gilded brass and brick textures.

Given the aim of making classical music more approachable and inclusive through the new brand identity, what specific strategies or initiatives does the Boston Symphony Orchestra plan to implement to ensure that this message resonates with diverse audiences? How do you envision these efforts contributing to breaking down barriers and expanding the orchestra’s reach?

Jesse Needleman: What’s critical in getting the brand identity to resonate is backing it up with programming that resonates, too; the product we offer and its packaging absolutely need to match.

We always look at our programming through a lens of engagement. So to that end, we’ve been working hard to bring exciting young talent to our stages (like South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim, who studies at NEC, won the Van Cliburn piano competition, and recently sold out four concerts at Symphony Hall), to commission and premiere new works (from the likes of Tania Leon and our newly announced Composer Chair Carlos Simon), to offer more culturally relevant programming (like a Pride Night concert featuring Thorgy Thor, and Dia de Muertos concerts, both with the Boston Pops), and to bring added context to the music we perform by including companion humanities programming in thematic festivals that anchor our seasons (like “Shostakovich Decoded” and “Beethoven & Romanticism” that will be part of the recently announced 2024-2025 BSO season).

The brand identities signal that it’s a new day at the BSO, both in the sense that we are continuing our deep and rich history of innovation in orchestral music and that we are taking a hard look at how we want to innovate the future so that we can contribute as much as we can to the amazing communities that we are part of in Boston and in the Berkshires; we are excited there will be much more to come on exactly what that means.

With the evolving landscape of music consumption and entertainment preferences, how does the BSO envision itself in the digital realm, and how will the new brand identity support its efforts to connect with audiences through online channels and multimedia experiences?

Jesse Needleman: The pandemic taught us a lot about creating digital experiences (particularly concerts via streaming video) and led us to approach this project with a strong “digital first” mentality. While interest in streaming concerts has waned since the public began returning to concert halls for in-person performances, we also know that we live in an increasingly digital world, and media that were once thought of as “traditional” (like outdoor) are themselves becoming digital, and require a different approach to brand identity. So, as part of developing the new identities, we not only created static versions of our logos but also developed animated versions, and we are also developing an audio component for them. Sight, sound, and motion are critical to capturing attention in the digital world that we live in, and so our brand identities need to take advantage of that.

In a world where cultural institutions must evolve to meet the demands of a rapidly changing landscape, the Boston Symphony Orchestra is a shining example of tradition reimagined. With its bold new identity, the BSO will captivate hearts and minds for generations to come, inviting audiences to experience the transformative power of music in all its splendor.

A design-first organization, Dropbox gathers its creatives for an annual design summit. This year, the company chose the theme “Blank Space” with a clear mission—to craft an experience that helps creatives conquer their fear of the blank page, embrace new things, and reconnect with their creative mojo.

Charmie Shah, the summit’s creative director and designer, conceptualized an event alongside the VP of Design at Dropbox Alastair Simpson and Sally Croom, Design Operations, to inspire and invigorate participants, encouraging them to embrace the unknown and venture beyond their comfort zones. The event’s core ethos of “Boundless Exploration” permeated every facet of the summit, from its logo to the physical space.

As someone who struggles with a fear of the blank page, I spoke to Shah to learn more about Dropbox’s strategies for tackling entrenched creative inhibition. We also explored how the summit’s spirit of boundless exploration manifested in its design and atmosphere.

Our conversation, below, has been edited for length and clarity.

Creatives often struggle with the blank canvas. How did you approach creating an experience that acknowledges this fear and actively empowers them to embrace experimentation and rediscover their creative agency?

Many things went into this event because it wasn’t just a branding project; it was also a physical space where we ensured that each element, every installation, and everything the creatives would experience would empower them to create. We didn’t want a sense of creation on demand; we didn’t want to force them onto a canvas and ask them to paint or draw; we just wanted them to feel empowered that they could create.

When we started this project, one of Dropbox’s main problems was that the company noticed the creatives were afraid of creating freely. Dropbox has a lot of product designers, and many of them would get mechanical and into the execution mindset rather than appreciating craft or playing and innovating. Dropbox felt the creators needed a sense of creative exploration, and that’s where this idea came from.

I started researching to understand this feeling of creative exploration and how we could bring it to life through various touchpoints rather than just a brand identity and ending it there.

The first element was the invitation; we wanted to send it out immediately to excite everyone about the idea. The event’s location was Palm Springs, which is really beautiful, so when choosing materials, I wanted to make sure that they would reflect the environment and the environment would reflect in the material. Dropbox wanted creatives to feel a sense of boundlessness—an open, free, and ethereal feeling— without actually having to meditate, so it was essential to create unobtrusive installations.

In my conversations with the leadership team, a sense of boundlessness kept coming up, ultimately informing the choice of materials. It all started with that desire to create an open space.

How did the abstract concept of “boundless exploration” translate into tangible design elements, such as the logo and the materials?

For the logo, I wanted to ensure fluidity and low contrast when it existed in graphic spaces or on all the branded elements, so it was pretty simple. The fun part was how the logo broke open and interacted across the edges of spaces; it would move around, spread open on the edges, and act as if it were exploring the borders.

We also used the exploration idea in other aspects of the branding; for example, different keynote slides with animated type that broke open and animated around the edges. When the logo opened up, it created this space in the center — evoking creative space.

I worked on a fun initial animation in which the logo would show up, hesitate a little bit, and then come back in place before fully opening and moving—synonymous with how we hoped the creatives would behave on this journey in Palm Springs.

The decision to have all the materials be reflective and unobtrusive came from the desire to encourage creatives to immerse themselves in the creative act. That’s where the idea of using metallic surfaces on the name badges came in. 

We had planned one final surprise event for the Dropbox attendees: a fun dinner at The Invisible House at Joshua Tree. Nobody knew the location. It’s such a beautiful, mirrored venue, reflecting the environment around it and blending in. The creatives didn’t know it would be their last stop, but we wanted the reflective event materials to give them hints.

I loved the thought that went into this event. We could have made generic name badges, but the material choice made them much more fun, and the creatives wore them with pride. The badges were so reflective that you could see the palm trees and the sky. Rather than featuring the attendees’ titles—the event included designers, producers, project managers, product designers, art directors, and brand designers—we used their Adobe Creator Types test results, which Dropbox had their staff take internally. We designated a color for each of the eight types represented on the metallic badge. When everyone walked in, they weren’t just a product manager, producer, or designer; they were all creatives identifying with other creative types.

For the badge installation, we created a wooden, umbrella-like structure. Because of the badges’ reflective nature, when the sun hit them, they reflected splotches of color around the space. There was even a custom cut-out of the Dropbox logo in the structure—designed to be unnoticeable until the sun hit the right angle, subtly reflecting the logo. We wanted it to feel like a Dropbox event without it being overly branded.

We created a badge installation where the creatives would walk in and they would see the badges displayed a certain way. The idea was to have an umbrella-like structure set up and because the badges were so beautiful and reflective, the Sun would just hit the badges and the metallic surfaces would reflect and you could see the splotches of color being reflected all around.

The wooden badge structure itself had a custom cut out of the Dropbox logo in it so nobody would really notice it but when the Sun hit the right angle, the shadow would reflect the Dropbox logo which was a fun hint of making it feel like it’s a Dropbox event without it being overly branded.

“Blank Space” suggests embracing openness and possibility. How did you balance this theme with the need for structure and flow in the event’s programming?

We worked with the event production agency OTHR to bring the event to life. The installations we created were critical because it was a design event, so all the little pieces — for example, an outside area for the creatives to sit with their notebooks and complete exercises — had to feel warm and welcoming but also sleek and on-theme.

We purposely limited the number of speakers because last year, we noticed that having too many panels every day exhausted the attendees and left little time for them to reflect and work on assignments. We didn’t want this to feel like a work event, rather, it had to feel like a space for them to be creative and feel free to explore.

We had Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist, who spoke about finding inspiration in various sources and transforming those ideas into our own, even if they may not be entirely original. He led a creative exercise called Blackout Poetry, where participants blackout portions of text to create new poems. Afterward, the creatives got time to complete an assignment rather than jump into another thing. The spacious flow of the event produced an atmosphere of calm and a sense of peace. It’s really fun to play around with the design of the materials and the event space, but it’s also fun to design attendee moments like this — to engineer time to create, be free, and not rush from one thing to the next.

What other insights or advice do you have to encourage creatives to embrace the blank space?

One concept I came across during my research, which I still remember and thought was beautiful, was that ideas have states of matter.

When you think about an idea, that state of matter is vapor (a gas), so it cannot be held or easily seen. When you start speaking about your idea, it turns into a liquid state, visible but not easily held. When you write your idea down on a physical piece of paper, it becomes solid and tangible.

So many of us get stuck in the vapor stage. I also go through that. I have so many ideas, and I don’t progress because it can be overwhelming. But once you start talking about an idea and writing it down, your idea evolves and becomes more tangible. You’ve progressed out of the vapor stage! 

This idea of the three states of matter, from vapor to liquid to solid, helped me visualize the progress from ideation to fruition. I hope it makes embracing the blank space a little less daunting for other creatives, too.

Nichols’ latest book, Flowers for Things I Don’t Know How to Say, is a poignant exploration of human connection and empathy in times of struggle. Drawing from personal experiences and a desire to offer solace to those facing hardship, Nichols embarked on a heartfelt journey culminating in a collection of flower paintings paired with words for the often small, sometimes overlooked moments that accompany hardship and grief. Things like the nurses who so graciously tell us what’s happening as a loved one lay on a hospital bed (one of our favorites).

Tucker shared that “putting work out into the world is never straightforward. To go from making something for myself to sharing it with the public (via the postal service, on Instagram, or in a book) can be tricky, but it’s also deeply satisfying in its own way. At the end of the day, I make things for myself and then try to find how they might land for someone else. The images with captions work when they resonate with someone else’s reality. I fundamentally believe that our sense of separateness is a myth, that we all have fears and hopes and frustrations and joys that overlap more than they don’t.”

In this book, an underlying idea is that even when life reveals what feels like an isolating experience almost beyond words, we might find some comfort in knowing that others have been here before.

Tucker Nichols

I make things for myself and then try to find how they might land for someone else. The images with captions work when they resonate with someone else’s reality.

Tucker Nichols

The inspiration for the project stemmed from Nichols’ own battle with illness and the realization that sometimes, despite our best intentions, words fail to convey the depth of our emotions. Reflecting on his journey to remission, Nichols found solace in the support of a close-knit group of loved ones, underscoring the importance of genuine connection during times of adversity.

Initially starting as a small gesture of kindness, Nichols began sending flower paintings to sick individuals on behalf of their loved ones. The project gained momentum when it was featured on national television, prompting requests from people around the world grappling with various challenges, from illness to grief to everyday struggles.

“I make flower paintings throughout the day—over breakfast, at my studio, at the dentist’s office. Drawing and painting regularly—some might say constantly—is how I stay sane, and I can get grumpy if I don’t make some art every day. I usually make the flower paintings without an idea of what text might accompany them unless there’s a news event that I want to speak to, like someone dying or another mass shooting. They find their way into piles in my studio, and when it’s time to make captions, I spread out a few and see what comes to mind.”

—Tucker Nichols

In Flowers for Things I Don’t Know How to Say, Nichols invites readers to contemplate the shared experiences that bind us together as human beings. Through his art, he reminds us that despite the complexities of life, we are never truly alone in our struggles. Each painting and accompanying caption serve as a reminder of humanity’s interconnectedness and the power of empathy to bridge the gaps between us.

In my last post, I talked about typography as poetry, describing my brief exposure to commercial art through my neighbor. At the time, I mentioned my interest to some of my older friends. They discouraged me from pursuing commercial art because “it was a male-dominated field.” Today, like other professions, graphic design—formerly known as commercial art—is mainly composed of women. Data USA shows that 53.7% of American graphic designers are women.

On that note, I am sharing a small selection of the female designers I have admired. When I started in design, I did not know much. Thus, I studied others’ graphic design work and sometimes other design areas like architecture.

One of the first female designers who caught my attention was Rosemarie Tissi. I specifically remember her work for „Offset“ for the printing company A. Schöb, in 1982 (back of a folder—second image down).

I looked at the typography of this image for hours. I was fascinated with how Tissi used these big, chunky letters to create the offset printer and her use of color and negative space. In a word, I was mesmerized by how the O captures the eye and moves it from the F to the E by gradually changing the color tone and playing with size. She uses the strong horizontal the T provides to arrange the letters, making the eye move from O to T seamlessly. One still reads the word offset; nothing more is needed to understand it. Tissi takes advantage of the natural eye movement from left to right to connect the word and image in our mind organically. I was and still am fascinated.

The second female designer whose work stopped me when I saw it was April Greiman’s. I had the opportunity to see her talk in Carbondale, IL, in 2005. I have never forgotten that talk. There was a desire to search in Greiman’s narrative as she told the story of her career, which resonated with me profoundly. I wished I had talked to her afterward. Her work would leave me speechless. The elements dance in the space in almost every design she creates. I had not seen work like that when I started to study design. I remember learning the grid and alignments, but Greiman’s work turned on a lightbulb. The page becomes a stage for the performers in her work. Her ideas about how design works on a printed page influenced me the most in my perception of space, page, and type.

Jennifer Sterling has influenced the way I see and perceive typography. The typography in her work is like something that floats on the page, like a lightweight feather that moves and turns. Her work is experimental and pushes the limits of the page and even motion. We expect to see the letters moving in a certain way, but in her work, the typography can and will take unexpected turns. Sometimes, Sterling incorporates shapes and elements to enhance ideas and the typographic movement.

Architect Zaya Hadid’s work makes me look twice. She passed in 2016, and it is a loss. You should visit Hadid’s website to explore her designs. This quote from her site summarizes how I feel about her work and why I admire it:

…the beauty and virtuosity within her work is married to meaning. Her architecture is inventive, original and civic, offering generous public spaces that are clearly organized and intuitive to navigate

Zaha Hadid

Below is one of Hadid’s designs: the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University. The building seems to want to levitate or fly away. It is simply impressive.

My interest in these designers stems from an admiration for defying the constraints innate to the materials they use playfully. Whether paper, digital, or spatial, these designers don’t just capture the movement in a frame; it feels like the designer is mentally dancing with their design at that moment. There is an organic and symbiotic dialogue between the design and the designer. These works are not void of meaning or purpose or are frivolously pushing the limits. These works result from a deep understanding and even acceptance of the constraints and limitations. Rather than succumbing to those, they embrace these parameters to birth work that seemingly defies its nature. Yet, it is not a rebellious defiance. It is a dance of give and take, a dance of conversation, and a dance of creation.

Of course, I can mention more designers. There are many others who have shaped the way I think about design in one way or another. However, these four designers have what I look for in my work in common: movement. When I started to study design, it was their work that captured my interest, and it still does.

Alma Hoffmann is a freelance designer, design educator, author of Sketching as Design Thinking, and editor at Smashing Magazine. This is an edited version of an original post on Temperamental amusing shenanigans, Alma’s Substack dedicated to design, life, and everything in between.

Header image © Alma Hoffmann; cyanotype painted with watercolor and ink, quote from Adam Crews.

Conran Design Group (CDG), a prominent brand and design consultancy under Havas — one of the world’s largest global communications groups — has unveiled a distinctive new brand identity. Positioned as Havas’ flagship brand and design network, CDG introduces an exciting purpose: design to inspire progress.

This purpose is not just a tagline but a guiding philosophy shaping every aspect of Conran Design Group’s identity. The brand adopts a striking typographic approach spearheaded by Jean François Porchez, a French type designer recognized for his work with Le Monde and the type for the French Olympic team. The new logo emphasizes that design is central to business and everyday life. Meanwhile, bold iconography captures the essence of its diverse locations, showcasing the brand’s global presence.

The rebranding effort extends beyond aesthetics, reflecting an evolved proposition that integrates sustainability across its offerings. With a renewed focus on brand strategy, design, experience design, and communications, CDG aims to deliver meaningful progress for businesses, individuals, and society.

“Fundamentally, the new brand places design at the heart of the offer; it’s central to our name, history, and future and reflects an unwavering belief that progress needs to be designed. The new marque, with the D at the centre of the C, is at the core of the identity and a shorthand for our positioning. It feels confident, full of personality, and culturally relevant,” says Lee Hoddy, Executive Creative Director.

The launch of Conran Design Group’s new brand identity aligns with the introduction of Citizen Brands, a study and accompanying framework designed to help brand leaders achieve balanced growth in an unbalanced world. The study offers a comprehensive brand and design strategy to guide leaders in creating brand experiences catering to both individual preferences and societal good.

CDG’s reinvigorated identity reaffirms its legacy and propels it into a new era of creativity and impact. With its unwavering belief in the power of design to drive positive change, Conran Design Group seeks to continue shaping the future of brands.

Today, the branding industry is in flux. On one hand, the digital era offers brands limitless opportunities to engage with their audiences through social media, content marketing, and personalized experiences. Conversely, a growing distrust of polished corporate messages and a saturated market have given rise to “anti-branding” and “post-branding” movements. These movements favor social good, authenticity, and a focus on product quality over brand image. Patagonia is perhaps the most visible example of this. Adding A.I. to the mix can diminish brand trust if used irresponsibly. For example, brands failing to declare the use of A.I.-generated content will cast doubt on the integrity of all their content, whether or not it is in fact A.I.-generated.

Amidst this backdrop of evolving branding ideologies, many creative professionals are gathering at OFFF Barcelona this week. The International Festival of Creativity, Art, and Digital Design fosters community around contemporary creativity, serving as a trendsetting global hub within design, art, and post-digital culture.

In the spirit of “What’s Next?” I asked five brand leaders whose agencies are represented at OFFF to share their perspective about the state of branding and what the future of the profession might look like. It was intriguing to see the array of viewpoints — the similarities and disparities — regarding the current branding landscape and what brands (and their creators) must consider moving forward. A common thread; true connections with consumers.

The following contributed their thoughts to this story: Veronica Fuerte, Founder & Creative Directress of Hey Studio; James Greenfield, CEO & Founder of Koto Studio; Radim Malinic, Founder & Creative Director at Brand Nu Studio; Max Ottignon, Co-Founder of Ragged Edge; and Surabhi Rathi, Strategy Director at BUCK.

How do you interpret the emergence of the “anti-branding” and “post-branding” trends within the current branding landscape? From your perspective, what specific insights or implications do you believe this trend holds for traditional branding strategies and practices?

Veronica Fuerte: The “anti-branding” and “post-branding” trends signal a move towards authenticity, transparency, and purpose in branding, challenging traditional tactics that focus on saturation and persuasion. Brands now need to deeply embed their values into their identity, engaging in meaningful storytelling and transparent dialogue with their audience. This requires a more nuanced approach, where genuine connections and value alignment become key to standing out.

“Anti branding can work for some, but the key thing for most is that finding the right level of originality is crucial. …Consumers are quick to see through inauthentic attempts to jump on these trends.”

—James Greenfield, CEO & Founder of Koto Studio

James Greenfield: I don’t think either anti or post branding really has much effect on the majority of the brands we see day-to-day. These trends often feel like a seismic shift when they are happening, but in reality, their impact is often overstated. Take the recent example from the start of the 2020s of leading fashion houses seemingly abandoning distinctive logos and embracing a more minimalist aesthetic. It was short lived and we’re already seeing this trend reverse, with Burberry’s recent rebranding demonstrating the continued value of a distinct brand identity. What they really wanted was the freedom to slap a hefty price tag on a T-shirt or a handbag in a flexible way so they could essentially be two brands at one time. 

Anti branding can work for some, but the key thing for most is that finding the right level of originality is crucial. While true originality might be elusive, the desire to push boundaries is essential for brand growth. It’s this very desire to stand out that fuels these “anti-branding” moments, rather than some underlying widespread political branding uprising. It’s also important to remember that anti-branding with a strong political message can only truly resonate with brands that already have a well-defined social or environmental stance.  Consumers are quick to see through inauthentic attempts to jump on these trends. The internet and our access to information means the internet is quick to punish brands it perceives to have wronged, just look at Budweiser sales in the US, so brands have to tread a little carefully and maybe know their customer more than ever? The driver for brands to change is about where and how their customer is more than what they look like when they turn up.

Radim Malinic: Have we reached the peak branding in the last few years? Having a big team to produce world-class work is no longer imperative. You need world-class ambition to produce work that can make international headlines. All you need is a small team and vision with results that align with many brand ‘deja-vu’ identity systems produced by brands much bigger with seemingly endless budgets. Producing shiny logos with animated assets, snazzy illustrations, and mood videos is no longer the stuff of dreams and hefty budgets. Take a team of five and watch the work fly. This makes our collective headway in visual excellence taste somewhat bittersweet. It also has made the branding landscape and its consumers jaded. We have been busy getting better without seeing our work’s side effects happening right before our eyes. Dog food packaging uses the same colour palette and font choices as the latest toothpaste company, bio-oil producing startup, and so on. Most of these brands rely on multi-channel broadcast instead of storytelling, which can result in greater trust and understanding. We’ve also started peeling layers of multinational brands and their campaigns only to realise things are not as we’ve been told all this time. It’s little surprise that we find ourselves in a situation where the old isn’t working anymore, and the new isn’t taking flight. 

Max Ottignon: Don’t sacrifice clarity or relevance for notoriety. Whether ‘anti-branding’ or ‘post-branding’, it’s still branding. A way of standing out and getting noticed in an ever-more competitive, noisy world. Showing up in a way that feels fresh and authentic can be incredibly powerful, particularly when pitched against an outdated, corporate approach. But lasting success still requires discipline and commitment to ensure that you’re building a brand, rather than simply making a statement. 

“Brand-building solely centered on commercial interests is outdated. Brands must reorient their “why” towards positive societal impact beyond just products.“

—Surabhi Rathi, Strategy Director at BUCK

Surabhi Rathi: At the heart of both these movements, lies a rejection of traditional branding as a manipulative tool for consumerism. It reflects deep skepticism towards branding’s roots in exploitative capitalist practices. But, they also serve as a reminder that brands hold immense cultural influence and power to shape societal values. 

And with that, we have a responsibility. 

Brand-building solely centered on commercial interests is outdated. Brands must reorient their “why” towards positive societal impact beyond just products. Clear ethical stances, environmental accountability, aligning with consumer values for the greater good – these are prerequisites, not options. Ultimately, branding should further human values, nurturing collective identities that joyfully unite us.

In essence, these movements advocate for an ethical redefining of branding’s very purpose. Brands must become purpose-driven catalysts for positive change, not vessels of exploitation. This shift is necessary in 2024.

During a time when consumer trust in institutions and corporations is declining, what do you think are necessary methods to adopt for branding agencies to stay relevant in an era where consumers increasingly value authenticity and reject traditional branding tactics?

Veronia Fuerte: To remain relevant as consumer trust wanes, branding agencies might emphasize transparency, authenticity, and direct engagement. This involves helping brands to align their actions with their messages, use user-generated content effectively, and engage in real conversations with their audience. It’s about empowering brands to embrace their uniqueness and connect on a human level.

“Storytelling with purpose is no longer just a nice thing to have. It’s the foundation of the branding landscape now.”

—Radim Malinic, Founder & Creative Director at Brand Nu Studio

Radim Malinic: I’m sure many agencies have been wrestling with ideas for how to help clients identify and communicate their genuine values, mission, and story. Storytelling with purpose is no longer just a nice thing to have. It’s the foundation of the branding landscape now. Move beyond traditional branding narratives and focus on storytelling with purpose. Help clients craft narratives that resonate with consumers on a deeper level by addressing social, environmental, or cultural issues that align with their values.

Max Ottignon: While the tactics may need to evolve, the basic foundations of brand strategy remain the same. At its simplest, our job is to frame products, services and organizations in ways that get them noticed, remembered and, eventually, chosen by a given audience. That means finding a place in the world, and in culture, that feels authentic to that brand and resonant to that audience. And showing up in a way that demonstrates a deep understanding of the community you’re aiming to connect with. Whereas yesterday that might have been a sports sponsorship, today it might be a Twitch activation or Roblox partnership. 

With the rise of social movements, such as conscious consumerism and sustainability advocacy, how do you envision the role of branding evolving to meet the changing expectations and values of consumers? What do you think will be essential for brands to effectively communicate to resonate with their target audience in this landscape?

Veronia Fuerte: As consumer values shift towards conscious consumerism and sustainability, branding must evolve to meet these expectations. This means going beyond selling products to embodying the values of societal change and sustainability. Effective communication and demonstrating a genuine commitment to these values will be crucial for resonating with today’s consumers.

“As consumer values shift towards conscious consumerism and sustainability, branding must evolve to meet these expectations.”

—Veronica Fuerte, Founder & Creative Directress of Hey Studio

James Greenfield: I’m not convinced consumers are giving traditional branding the cold shoulder. Look at the stats: Gen-Zers in the US are splashing their cash on fashion like it’s going out of style. Sure, there’s plenty of talk about sustainability and conscious consumerism, but take a stroll through any mall or supermarket and you’ll see a different story playing out.

Despite the rise of online shopping and influencer culture, the big players are still churning out the same old stuff they have been for decades. Sure, the marketing spiel might have changed, especially on social media, but the products themselves? Not so much. Ask any group of people about their favorite brands and I bet you won’t hear anything groundbreaking.

Now, don’t get me wrong—there’s plenty of buzz around products that feel a bit more off the beaten track, but often, it’s just the packaging that’s different. Take Tesla, for example. They’re all about innovation, but when you strip away the hype and the power source, they’re still pretty conservative in their design and branding.

Then there’s Apple. Their marketing might pop up in unexpected places, but there’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about an Apple Store. Yet the iPhone is what the younger generation is clamoring for.

With the internet ready to pounce on any brand that steps out of line, companies have to tread carefully and really get to know their customers. Because at the end of the day, it’s not just about how a brand looks—it’s about meeting your customers where they are, whether that’s online or in person.

Radim Malinic: Brands must be transparent about their actions and be willing to be held accountable for their impact on people and the planet. Transparency will become a cornerstone of branding in this era. Consumers increasingly demand access to information about a brand’s practices, including its environmental impact, labour conditions, and social responsibility initiatives. New startups and brands often spring up to act as the antidote to the bad practices of the juggernauts of the past. Doing things right is much harder and more costly than old methods. To convince consumers who often feel a blind devotion to legacy brands is often a task of its own. We have our work cut out for us, that’s for sure.

“Don’t fake it. …We’ve probably seen the last of a mayonnaise claiming its purpose is to reduce food waste (Hellmann’s) or a co-working space purporting to ‘elevate the world’s consciousness’ (WeWork).”

—Max Ottignon, Co-Founder of Ragged Edge

Max Ottignon: Don’t fake it. 

After years of brands jumping on inauthentic purpose bandwagons, there’s been a shift towards a more straightforward approach. Perhaps in response to people having to be more careful in their spending, brands have re-focussed on what their customers really want. Not what they’d like them to want. For some, that’s making sustainability a priority. But that focus has to be backed up by action and commitment at a business level. 

I think we’ve probably seen the last of a mayonnaise claiming its purpose is to reduce food waste (Hellmann’s) or a co-working space purporting to ‘elevate the world’s consciousness’ (WeWork). The trick, as always, is in understanding what matters to your customers, and how you’re in a unique position to offer it. But if you’re tempted to fake it, don’t.

Established in 2000, OFFF has become the largest exhibition and meeting point for contemporary visual creativity, uniting the worldwide network of design and creative professionals to foster connections among innovative talents globally in an effort to share insights, collaborate, and unite.

This year, the festival emphasizes nurturing new talent through “The Next Us,” a platform enabling Barcelona’s design students to showcase their work to OFFF’s global audience.

Learn more information about OFFF Barcelona, happening now (April 4 – 6).

Located within the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Poland, Tauron Lab stands out as a state-of-the-art new media laboratory in Europe. Offering groundbreaking audiovisual technologies, Tauron Lab provides a unique platform for artists and scientists alike to explore creativity in an immersive environment.

Operated by the Soundscape Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the urban sound environment through research and education, Tauron Lab serves as a nexus where culture, art, and technology intersect. Creative agency Meteora, located in Kraków, was tasked with developing the brand identity for this experimental audiovisual lab — no small feat bringing sound experimentation to visual representation.

Since its official opening in September 2023, Tauron Lab has been a hub of creative activity. The multidimensional space hosts a diverse array of initiatives tailored to cater to various audiences. At the heart of its offerings is Tonarium, a futuristic sound tool that facilitates experimentation with audio. 

The lab also showcases various audiovisual technologies, events showcasing cutting-edge technologies, artistic residencies focusing on innovation, workshops for both kids and adults, and installations highlighting experimental prototypes.

One of Tauron Lab’s key features is its artistic residencies, which provide opportunities for artists to delve into cutting-edge technologies such as three-dimensional sound systems and spatialization methods. These residencies aim to foster experimentation and innovation in artistic expression.

To visually communicate these initiatives, the Soundscape team collaborated with Meteora on crafting a comprehensive identity system incorporating typography, geometric shapes, and dynamic animations, each tailored to reflect the nature of the lab’s diverse events. The goal was to create a transparent identity that enhances, rather than overshadows, the content of each event.

Tauron Lab aims to be more than just a laboratory; rather, it is a dynamic space where creativity knows no bounds and the fusion of art and technology opens new realms of possibility.

A new piece for the New York Times, illustrating an article on brain injuries caused by blast exposure and how artillery is essentially killing members of the military who don’t even see combat. Editorial work is such a different pace to book design – turnaround of one or two days rather than several months (or even years). It’s intense, but damn I love it.

A little blown away by the virtual tour of the George Eastman Museum’s Crashing into the Sixties film poster exhibition. Properly immersive; an excellent use of 3D modelling. One of the drawbacks of viewing posters on-screen is you lose a sense of scale, but with this you really appreciate how enormous some of these pieces are.

(thank you Eric for the tip)

Elsewhere in the newslettiverse:

Owen D. Pomery on architectural drawing and the art of creating a believable space;

Marina Amaral on fake historical photos and how the increasing sophistication of AI-generated photos raises concerns about the reliability of visual evidence; and

Gia asks, what is a female robot?

Best words growled by Tom Waits in A Brief History of John Baldessari: peepholes; biennale; pushpins; Giotto; dots.

Love this detail from Frank Herbert’s wiki page:

“The novel originated when he was assigned to write a magazine article about sand dunes in the Oregon Dunes near Florence, Oregon. He got overinvolved and ended up with far more raw material than needed for an article. The article was never written, but it planted the seed that led to Dune.”

Overinvolved.

My Threads has turned into something of a monochromatic scrapbook. Not really sure why, but I like using it in a completely different way to twitter. Proper good old fashioned micro-blogging. It almost feels like – ask your grandparents – tumblr.

As a new series of Neverending Story movies is announced, behold one of the all time great cosplays.

That is all.

This was originally posted on Meanwhile, a Substack dedicated to inspiration, fascination, and procrastination from the desk of designer Daniel Benneworth-Gray.

Collage by the author for the New York Times.

Coffeehaus at COLLINS hosts a monthly communal gathering for people from all walks of life who share the goal of simply showing up to experience creative community. March’s event featured a conversation, book signing, cocktails, and treats with the illustrious Craig Frazier, who discussed his newly released book Drawn, a compendium of his illustrations for prominent publications and businesses around the globe.

An internationally renowned illustrator with a career spanning since 1978, Frazier’s illustrations are celebrated for their wit, optimism, and simplicity.

His creative contributions have appeared in the New York Times, Time Magazine, Fortune, Bloomberg Business Week, Harvard Business Review, and The Wall Street Journal. Frazier has an impressive roster of blue-chip clients, including Adobe, American Express, Boeing, Chevrolet, Deloitte, MasterCard, Mohawk Paper, Navigant, The Royal Mail, U.S. Postal Service, and United Airlines.

He has also designed eight postage stamps, including the beloved 2006 Love stamp and the commemorative Scouting stamps in 2010/11.

Frazier’s artistry goes beyond fulfilling client requests; he illustrates what he feels will make people stop, look, and think. Coffeehaus at COLLINS was a packed event, buzzing with creative energy from like-minded folks. I was fortunate to connect with Frazier at the event and followed up with some questions about his process and the importance of work that invites people in.

(Interview edited for clarity and length).

During your talk, you emphasized the importance of creating an approachable book with meaningful stories rather than just a visually striking but weighty coffee table book. What is the significance of incorporating narrative elements, and how does this approach enhance the reader’s experience? Additionally, how did you strike a balance between narrative and visuals?

It’s not unlike my work. You must invite people in and make them feel welcome. Physically, I wanted the book to have weight yet a manageable footprint. I wanted it to be functional on a desk, in your lap, or on a plane (thus the slightly smaller dimension than many monographs). I wanted it to feel useable, not monumental. There is something intimidating about an oeuvre of someone’s lifetime of work—so I wanted to soften the barrier. The scale of the book, the use of Garamond, and the size and pacing of each illustration contribute to its approachability. My amberliths, sketches, and sketchbooks demystify the process and invite the reader backstage. The idea of narratives woven throughout the book breaks the rhythm and reminds the reader that the illustrations are the products of a greater effort—both conceptually and professionally.

My life experience and my choices inform my work—the two are inextricably connected. I have found the result immeasurably rewarding and hope the work reflects that. This is the part of work life that I wanted to reveal. Things happen. We can’t control everything, but we can lend a guiding hand.  

This book is for the curious. Whether you are a designer or not, revealing the ‘whys’ of my work will alter your understanding of it. My intention is to allow people to see parallels to their own lives and careers, regardless of their profession. We all make choices that shape how we feel about our jobs. I’m curious how creative people make their work and connect their life stories to it. Asking those questions leads to a deeper appreciation and a chance to learn something. I want that experience available to the readers of Drawn.

It is predominantly a visual book, no question. One can enjoy it on that level alone. The written content is micro-dosed to not compete with the visuals but complement and contribute depth.

I draw elements that support the story, not decorate it.

Your work is celebrated for its visual riddles and graphic wit, often embodying both simplicity and depth. How do you balance clarity and complexity in your work, especially when dealing with abstract concepts or visual puzzles?

Simplicity is a guiding principle in all of my work—design or illustration. I subscribe to both the aesthetic and conceptual orientation, so it’s easy to abide by. It works—simplicity serves comprehension in its elegance and functionality. Simplicity is necessary now more than ever when we are all operating at the edge of our visual threshold—it becomes an attractor because it asks less of us. When we overload our messaging (or visuals), it’s at the risk of getting passed by. I stick with singular messaging, which makes for singular illustrations. I draw elements that support the story, not decorate it. Simplicity equals clarity. The more abstract, the simpler the equation must be. If done right, there is beauty in simplicity. Embedding riddles and wit in the illustration brings a smile to the mind. The illustration’s depth is in the reader’s mind—it’s the place the illustration takes them.

When discussing your creative process, you mentioned taking something to the brink and then stepping it back. How do you recognize when you’ve reached that edge, and what factors influence your decision to pull back or further refine your idea?

This question is challenging because I don’t have a specific formula for it—it’s intuitive. The best way to describe it is to say that when I think I have found an angle to tell the story—I then attempt to regulate how the reader discovers the answer within. It’s a matter of leaving breadcrumbs rather than the whole loaf. It’s always a matter of leaving room for a reader to invest time (often only seconds) and mental energy to understand the message. Breadcrumbs also leave room for interpretation, crucial in talking to a larger audience. I’ve learned that people are smarter than we often give them credit for. Clients always want to make sure their readers get it, but in doing so, they often eliminate the fun by over-explaining it. It’s a delicate balance, and I stand my ground with clients. I’ve got a good instinct for it by now.

There is a lot of attention to creativity, how we do it, and the secrets to turning it on. I’ve never paid much attention to that and tried to develop good habits and a problem-solving discipline. If you sign up to be a designer, your job can’t wait until the muse shows up.

Drawn delves into curiosity, self-doubt, and confidence, all of which are common experiences for creatives. How have these themes influenced your journey as a creative? Can you share any personal anecdotes or pivotal moments where you’ve grappled with self-doubt and how you overcame it to push your creative boundaries?

Curiosity is key. We must be curious about what others make and how to inform and inspire our own creativity. We also must be curious about the oddities around us. These are the fuel for ideas. Self-doubt and confidence are opposites, yet both motivate us. Both are necessary to keep the other in check. Self-doubt—however uncomfortable it is—is critical to doing good work and growing. The better our judgment, the easier it is to become complacent and make safe work. I find my own self-doubt to be often an indicator that I’m breaking new ground. We all experience self-doubt because creativity isn’t science—it’s experimental by design. The good news is that with experience, self-doubt wanes and gives way to confidence, and if we are lucky, humility lies right in between both—the most essential element of personal growth.

I frequently have doubts about my work particularly when I’m sketching on assignment. When I give it a little time to breathe and look at the work with fresh eyes, the doubt often subsides. I remind myself that new is often uncomfortable and these are the chances we must take.

There is a lot of attention to creativity, how we do it, and the secrets to turning it on. I’ve never paid much attention to that and tried to develop good habits and a problem-solving discipline. If you sign up to be a designer, your job can’t wait until the muse shows up. Though she does make appearances, we must operate in an ‘always go’ position.

As it relates to ideas, my solution is to keep sketching. It is the cheapest and fastest prototyping method out there. It is a discipline that I have practiced my entire career, and it never fails. Every sketch I make is an experience of seeing something and understanding it better. I have far more unsuccessful sketches than successful ones, but they are not mutually exclusive. You must turn over rocks until you find what you are looking for. I have a confidence in process—the more you produce, the better the chances are of arriving at something new—it’s that simple.

Your work has inspired many aspiring illustrators and designers. You offered the valuable insight that “style comes just as much from your deficiencies as well as your expertise.” Could you elaborate on this concept and explain how embracing one’s shortcomings can contribute to the development of a unique artistic style?

Understanding what we each ‘have to offer’ is an endeavor you can’t suddenly take on one day. It’s an understanding that comes over time and practice. We never fully understand it, but we must move toward it and often get out of its way. That said, we work to develop personally and professionally, and the goal is to find where we can each put a spin on things. Our fingerprints on our work are the characteristics reflective of both our strengths and weaknesses. Our ability to accept both of those—our deficiencies being the toughest—is where our individuality and point of view reside. The world is full of people—and companies—trying to create a mass consumable perception. But—as practitioners—we shouldn’t take that approach. The baseline is to be a good problem-solver. However, the expression and articulation of those solutions can be personal and unique to each of us. Herein lies the risk and the satisfaction. One reason this works is that it is honest and defendable. It’s easier to stand up for our own ideas than it is for others. The second reason is that unique work stands the best chance of being novel in the eyes of the public. As designers, we don’t have to have thousands of clients. We must have enough to support the economy of our practice. I have found that making what I can make and searching for audiences that appreciate my sensibilities is much easier—and more satisfying—than working in the inverse. Differentiation serves the competitive nature of our job.

As designers, we don’t have to have thousands of clients. We must have enough to support the economy of our practice … making what I can make and searching for audiences that appreciate my sensibilities is much easier—and more satisfying—than working in the inverse.

If you want to get your hands on Drawn, which I highly recommend — it’s fantastic; you can order his book here.

Since its founding, National Geographic, or NatGeo for short, has evolved into a multifaceted platform spanning print, digital, television, and more, exploring science, geography, history, and culture. NatGeo seeks to inspire curiosity, foster understanding, and champion conservation efforts worldwide through its articles, documentaries, educational initiatives, and photography.

The globally recognized magazine, which has over 84 million monthly readers, unveiled a significant design refresh this month. This transformation, revealed in the March issue, marks the debut under Editor-in-Chief Nathan Lump and Creative Director Paul Martinez, who assumed their roles in 2022. With Lump’s rich editorial background, including publications like TIME and The New York Times, alongside Martinez’s creative expertise at Travel + Leisure, the duo brings a bedrock of experience to the publication.

The key design and content highlights include:

• New sections, including “In Focus,” a selection of full-page images from National Geographic’s photographers in the field, amplify the focus on photography and visual storytelling.
• Short-form content is now interspersed with in-depth features to create a more varied and dynamic reading experience.
• A larger typeface for an easier read – an intentional update taking reader feedback into account.
• And a subscriber-only cover that features more artful, intimate visuals.

I reached out to Lump and Martinez, eager to discuss the driving forces behind this redesign and their plans for holding 130+ years of tradition, while addressing the evolving needs of print and digital audiences. Our conversation (condensed for length and clarity), is below.

The redesign marks a significant shift in National Geographic‘s visual identity and content structure. What was the inspiration behind deciding to introduce new sections like “In Focus” and the added emphasis on visual storytelling?

NL: We’ve had an emphasis on visual storytelling in our pages for many decades, so while I don’t see our recent adjustments as a particular shift in that direction, we are continually looking for ways to heighten for the reader what is special about what we do. The core of our mission is helping readers to discover and better understand the wonder of our world, and for me, a lot of what I wanted to accomplish with this refresh was to showcase the true diversity of the subjects we cover and what we’re learning about them – from animal behavior to science to history and more. Our new recurring story types are designed to do just that. “In Focus,” a handful of pages at the start of the book, is in many ways a microcosm of that wider approach: we are fortunate to have relationships with great photographers around the globe who are always at work, and this column brings readers a selection of their recent images from out in the field, across the full spectrum of topics of interest to our readers. 

PM: A segment such as “In Focus” truly emphasizes one of our strengths: photography. Placing this at the forefront is not just about captivating the reader with compelling images but also about swiftly propelling them into the heart of the magazine. This seamless transition leads directly into our initial main feature, where we aim for readers to immerse themselves in a deeper narrative.

How do you balance honoring the magazine’s rich heritage of storytelling, particularly through its iconic photography, while also pushing boundaries in today’s media landscape? In what ways does the redesign reflect the evolution of storytelling mediums and audience preferences?

NL: I am extremely conscious of our legacy and of the incredibly loyal, devoted readership we are fortunate to have, and of course that makes you be very deliberate and thoughtful when you make changes. But legacy can also lead you to be too conservative and hold you back from making genuine improvements in the service of your audience. My feeling is that as long as you retain your commitment to telling meaningful stories that align with your brand and meet your reader’s expectations of quality, you have permission to adjust as long as you are putting yourself in the reader’s shoes and thinking about what will serve them best. I thought a lot about what it means to innovate in print as we approached this work and tried to ask myself whether traditional conventions still held true. Years of working on digital content and products have grounded me in UX thinking and research, and I drew on that in this process. Our decision to radically simplify the book structure—essentially, almost the entire magazine is one unnamed “section” that consists of shorter and longer stories mixed together—stems from an understanding that digital and social environments have conditioned us to consume content in more free-flowing and serendipitous way. The story selection and flow are still highly curated, as any great magazine should be, but it allows for more variation and surprise that we think makes the overall experience more pleasurable and engaging.

Design plays a significant role in ensuring that readers do not encounter difficulty with the content.

Paul Martinez, Creative Director

The decision to incorporate more short-form content alongside in-depth features is interesting. How do you navigate maintaining depth and substance while catering to shorter attention spans in today’s digital age?

PM: Many of our decisions revolved around the concept of pacing. Our strategy involved interspersing shorter stories among the longer ones to create a dynamic flow of peaks and valleys for the reader. We discovered that grouping all the longer features together risked reader fatigue, so placing shorter pieces between them offers readers a chance to engage swiftly with the content.

From a design standpoint, we aimed to signal to the reader when they were transitioning from a longer feature to a shorter story. To achieve this, we developed a consistent template for the shorter stories, facilitating a smooth exit from and entrance into the longer features. Additionally, we sought to engage the typographer more in introducing the features to signify the beginning of a substantial story.

Typography plays a crucial role in readability and accessibility, and your decision to introduce a larger typeface reflects a commitment to improving the reader experience. How did you approach this aspect of the redesign, particularly in response to reader feedback?

PM: Ensuring readability is a constant and top priority. Design plays a significant role in ensuring that readers do not encounter difficulty with the content. Moreover, from an aesthetic perspective, we aimed to provide sufficient space for the increased type size in the body copy and captions to breathe. By augmenting the white space in the layouts, we were able to strike that delicate balance and hopefully improve the reader experience.

The subscriber-only cover featuring more artful and intimate visuals is a bold move, especially in an era where digital content often takes precedence. What motivated this decision, and how do you see it contributing to the magazine’s relationship with its most loyal readers?

NL: I am conscious that our relationship with subscribers is a personal one—they’ve invited us into their homes—and that the experience of receiving a printed magazine in the mail and diving into it on your sofa is quite particular relative to other ways that you encounter content in other environments and platforms. On a traditional newsstand, you need to shout, as it were, to gain a potential reader’s attention. In digital, it’s much the same—you have milliseconds in someone’s scrolling to grab their attention. When they’ve subscribed, they’ve already indicated an interest in your content and a willingness to engage. That’s not to say that the cover doesn’t need to provoke engagement, but when you hold a magazine in your hands at home, you are quite literally up close and personal with it. That allows us, I think, to showcase artistry and to be quieter in our choice of image when it’s appropriate, and we deliberately went minimal with type, in a nod to the old National Geographics with type-only covers that essentially served as a table of contents. Our goal is still to intrigue or to move the reader in some way, but we can take a different approach that we hope delivers something tailored to the subscriber’s mindset now that they’re ready to sit down and read.

How do you navigate the preferences and consumption habits of print readers versus digital consumers, and what lessons can other content creators learn from your experience? Any advice for media companies looking to strengthen connections with their audiences in an increasingly digital landscape?

NL: Like many publishers, we know that our print and digital audiences are quite distinct, and while they share some common affinities, they are not mirror images of each other. For many years, at other titles, I tried to achieve nearly total platform convergence—with all content designed to flow seamlessly between platforms—but I no longer think that’s the best approach. Increasingly, we take a fluid approach to our content creation, with some stories designed specifically to satisfy the needs of either print or digital (or social) audiences, and then selectively, those stories migrate to other platforms, often with modifications and sometimes in a different medium. It’s more bespoke and requires more care, but if you build the intention into your production process from the outset, you can ensure you’re generating the right type of material and minimize the effort required after the fact. This is an essential part of being responsive to audience preferences. What will work for a certain type of reader or user in one place will not necessarily work for another reader or user somewhere else. My goal with all our storytelling is to maximize the reach and impact of our work, and the way that works is by recognizing how preferences and behaviors vary based on where someone is and their mindset. The through line, of course, is quality – personally, I find this thinking and the process it informs so much more creatively energizing than when I started my career, although it is undoubtedly more complicated. You can’t do everything all the time, so it’s also important to be mindful of who you are most focused on reaching and strategically what you are trying to get out of building that relationship. I think that today, in digital environments, in particular, success is a lot about super-serving more specific audiences and interests. In some ways, we’ve always done this with our printed magazines, so we’re well positioned to thrive wherever we may be because we think consumer-first, fundamentally, and build that into everything we do.

Diana Kasay, co-founder and CEO of Readymag, underscores the importance of creating environments where women can flourish and contribute to shaping the future of design. The ReadyLaunch Grant is poised to ignite the passion projects of its recipients, providing a platform for their creative endeavors.

Central to the relaunch is a showcase of 37 influential women in design from the 20th and 21st centuries, including luminaries such as Paula Scher, Kazuyo Sejima, Charlotte Perriand, Debbie Millman, Norma Merrick Sklarek, Tea Uglow, Jessica Walsh, and Ilana Goor. With a commitment to inclusivity and horizontal representation, the project aims to recognize and celebrate the diverse contributions of women in the industry.

In addition to the ReadyLaunch Grant, Readymag offers resources tailored to support female and non-binary designers. Each grant package includes a fellowship valued at $2000 alongside free one-year access to a Female Design Council membership, enrollment in the Female Design Council Mentor Match Program, and assistance securing media coverage. From networking to funding and mentorship, the company’s dedication to empowering creators underscores its mission to foster a more equitable design landscape..

Inspired and excited to learn more, I spoke to Alya Datii, Readymag’s head of brand marketing and the producer of both editions of Designing Women, and Lora Appleton, executive director and founder of the Female Design Council (FDC).

What insights or feedback from the initial launch of Designing Women influenced the decision to relaunch the initiative in 2024 with the ReadyLaunch Grant?

AD: Designing Women 2019 was the first time Readymag spoke on behalf of our brand on a social issue. For companies like ours, any take is risky; a vibe check with the user community might transform it because not everyone will agree with us – and not everyone did in 2019. We were anxious and more careful with our language than we are now, but the initiative came from personal experiences, from a place of honesty and a feeling of responsibility. As a female-led business, we couldn’t compromise our beliefs to be more likable. The risk paid off. Of course, there were hurtful and dismissive comments, unfollows, and unsubscribes, but supportive reactions outweighed the bad stuff.

Years went by, and every Women’s History Month, design media and influencers repeatedly highlighted the project. In 2023, we finally realized that Designing Women needed an update—if it’s still getting attention, that means it’s needed, and if it’s needed, the program must reflect our current beliefs. The 2019 project, albeit not intentionally, mainly focused on cis women and was whiter than the actual design field. In the 2024 version, we aimed to do a better job of being equitable.

Our reason for adding the ReadyLaunch Grant is simple: as Readymag grew as a business, we became strong enough to reinvest more in the community.

At the current rate of progress, it will take 131 years to reach full parity.

Global Gender Gap Index 2023

Could you elaborate on the process of making the Designing Women project more horizontal and inclusive? How did your team identify and prioritize the challenges and needs at the intersection of gender and design?

AD: Readymag’s marketing and design teams are primarily female, and we’ve experienced many of the issues the project addresses firsthand. We sat down and listed our problems, experiences, needs, and demands at the intersection of our work and gender; then, we reached out to people outside of our circle for input. From there, we picked the blank spaces we could try to fill as a сompany. We decided to continue archiving the impact of female designers, using our platform to highlight other initiatives tackling gender issues, and setting up a grant which prioritizes designers from underrepresented communities. In 2019, adding a ‘Resource’ section was an afterthought. This time, we based the relaunch on studying and contributing to the visibility of the work already done in the sector.

The ReadyLaunch Grant supports many project types, including newsletters, zines, YouTube channels, and podcasts. How do you envision these projects contributing to combating gender inequality in the design industry?

AD: One of the central issues that affects the career choices and paths of women, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people is underrepresentation. It’s hard to take professional risks, launch passion projects, and tackle social issues while facing discrimination and working the second shift.

We expect the ReadyLaunch grant to help the project authors pursue their true passion. Many exceptional projects deal with gender equity, but it’s hard for them to sustain their work from a financial and time perspective. Our grant can enable them to pay themselves, pay their team, or cover other expenses, at least for a while.

Many exceptional projects deal with gender equity, but it’s hard for them to sustain their work from a financial and time perspective.

What excites you most about the relaunch, and what do you hope this initiative will achieve?

AD: To be honest, the response has already exceeded our expectations. In the first few days, we’ve received dozens of amazing proposals from all over the world. I hope we’ll be able to do the very difficult job of selecting just four winners well and that we will connect more applicants with resources that can help them implement their projects.

Besides practical outcomes, we hope Designing Women will continue making design herstories visible and inspiring other companies to take a stance on gender inequality. The current situation is a systemic and institutional failure that no single person, activist group, or company can overcome alone. However, businesses can influence their networks and use their platforms to make at least a small but positive impact.

With a curated list of over 20 organizations and initiatives tailored for female and non-binary individuals in design, how does Readymag approach collaboration and community-building to create a more supportive and inclusive industry environment?

AD: We understood how much work had already been done by activist initiatives and recognized that our responsibility as a business was to use our platform to shine a light on the work of others. In the reboot of the project in 2024, we’re taking this responsibility to a new level: we made the project much more horizontal by referring people to sources that deal with gender equality issues professionally. People need a lot of different resources: mentorships, subscriptions to services, educational courses, and trips. We’re very open to partnerships for resources and are not looking for the usual cross-promo; our main goal is contributing to the community.

The current situation is a systemic and institutional failure that no single person, activist group, or company can overcome alone. However, businesses can influence their networks and use their platforms to make at least a small but positive impact.

With the Female Design Council’s commitment to advancing female and non-binary representation in the design field, how do initiatives like Designing Women and the ReadyLaunch Grant contribute to its broader efforts?

LA: The FDC Mentor Match program started in 2020, and since then, it has served over 250 aspiring designers, architects, and applied artists by connecting them with successful design industry professionals. This direct relationship allows mentees to receive real-world advice, directions, and counsel to lead them toward their professional goals. A key element of our mentorship program is that it is also open to mid-career professionals interested in transitioning or pivoting into a different specialty. We are committed to keeping this a free program so that it’s accessible to anyone, regardless of financial means.

A key element of our mentorship program is that it is also open to mid-career professionals interested in transitioning or pivoting into a different specialty.

In what ways does the Female Design Council Mentor Match Program support emerging designers, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds, in navigating design industry challenges?

LA: The FDC Mentor Match program started in 2020, and since then, it has served over 250 aspiring designers, architects, and applied artists by connecting them with successful design industry professionals. This direct relationship allows mentees to receive real-world advice, directions, and counsel to lead them toward their professional goals. A key element of our mentorship program is that it is also open to mid-career professionals interested in transitioning or pivoting into a different specialty. We are committed to keeping this a free program so that it’s accessible to anyone, regardless of financial means.

How does the Female Design Council approach collaboration and community-building to create a more supportive and inclusive environment within the industry?

LA: The FDC has been “doing the work” since Day One. Everything we do is community-driven and inclusive, and we are very mindful and focused on ensuring access and representation. We offer in-person and virtual networking events, a free mentoring program, and 25 gratis memberships annually to designers of underrepresented backgrounds. Those are a few examples, but a spirit of inclusivity and collaboration infuses everything about our mission and programming.

Applications for the ReadyLaunch Grant are open from March 4 to May 8, 2024, inviting aspiring designers to seize the opportunity to propel their projects forward. With this initiative, Readymag continues to champion diversity and inclusion within the design community, reaffirming its commitment to empowering creators.

All reports from my “tribe” of artist friends suggested that there was much to discover in Florida’s most international city. New museums, public access to private art collections, and hot new galleries offered the latest contemporary art. Planning only a three-day trip, I needed to focus my excursion and treat my time like a conference for “one” with a daily agenda centered on one theme: MATERIALITY. I wanted to learn what “stuff” artists now use to express themselves and how it might influence my work.

My experience did not disappoint. The Miami art scene pulsates with artistic power, deft craft, and conceptual innovation. For this review, I’m sharing a selection of artists who courageously use uncommon materials in an increasingly immaterial world.

Murjoni Merriweather

Sculptor, ceramicist, and filmmaker Murjoni Merriweather’s work is provocatively beautiful. In a gallery setting, her female busts, fired in ceramic and covered with braided synthetic hair, beckon close examination. Adding hoop earrings or other metallic accessories, including gold teeth, she makes a defiant statement about Black culture and style.

Kennedy Yanko

Brooklyn-based painter/sculptor Kennedy Yanko creates lighter-than-air forms in metal and paint. Her installation I Am Flower from 2021 flies through space like a vengeful archangel, shape shifting depending on your approach. Corten steel and paint skins (made from hundreds of gallons of poured paint) result in contrasting surfaces that are visually raw and surprisingly graceful.

Kehinde Wiley

Although famous for painting President Obama’s official portrait, Kehinde Wiley mastered the art of portraiture “using the visual rhetoric of the heroic” since his days at Yale. His massive painting, Sleep at the Rubell Museum, measures 11’x 25’ and is a tour de force of exacting craft in rendering flesh, color, and decorative pattern in the same “oil on canvas” technique used for centuries but with pyrotechnic effect.

Yayoi Kusama

You must wait your turn before entering Yayoi Kusama’s Where the Lights in My Heart Go, as the legendary Japanese artist wants an intimate experience with you. The eleven-foot cube, made of glass mirror and polished stainless steel, is drilled with randomly placed holes providing the only interior light source. Once inside the box, a starscape of pinpoint lights glows in a universe of darkness. It’s a simple illusion that always delivers and never gets old.

Rashid Johnson

Cipher-rich and aggressively muscular Rashid Johnson’s “painting” After Medium combines oak flooring, fire-branded marks, black soap, wax, and paint to create a conceptually intricate work. Because the background is conventional flooring, I shifted my perspective. I imagined floating above the surface, looking down at the burned, scuffed, and spilled remains of some sinister afterparty.

Bisa Butler

The art world is currently flush with artists who work with fiber in all its forms, from raw sisal, cotton, and wool to lush satin, lamé, and polyester. New Jersey-born Bisa Butler sits solidly amid this exciting trend in textile art. Her lush portraits of historical figures, families, and artists, such as Black is King, 2001, are “stitched’ together in silk, wool, velvet, and quilted appliqué. Her color palette is intensely bright, and the topographic tactility of the textile is terrific.

Nick Cave

The New York Times called Nick Cave “the most joyful and critical artist in America.” I would emphasize joy and add audacity because there is nothing like a “Nick Cave.” I saw Soundsuit 2008, one of my favorite works by him to date and was awed by the insane use of color, fabric, metal, and fiberglass. This sculpture makes you smile, festooned with a garden of exaggerated flowers.

Es Devlin

The description “superstar” is so overused that it has lost its sense of importance, except in the case of Es Devlin. By any measure, artistically and commercially, she is an international phenom. At Miami’s SUPERBLUE gallery, devoted to experiential art, Devlin’s Forest of Us is a “mirrored maze inspired by branching — bronchi in the lungs, limbs of trees, rivulets into streams.” Meandering through the space was a delight at every turn, where visitors suddenly appeared and then vanished in the forests of reflective surfaces. At one point, I stood at the edge of a gentle stream of water and watched my motion-activated silhouette respond to my every gesture.

My three-day visit to Miami offered just an amuse bouche to the city’s cultural banquet. However, my focus on contemporary art in the Miami Beach, Wynwood, and Allapattah districts was full of exciting new work by mainly young and restless artists who embody the edge of contemporary culture today. If you have time to treat yourself to such an experience, the following links will help plan your trip:

Rubell Museum

The de la Cruz Collection

El Espacio 23

Pérez Art Museum (PAMM)

Institute of Contemporary Art Miami

SUPERBLUE

The collection of Craig Robins

Finally, I liked most of what I saw and acknowledged the efforts of artists whose work did not appeal to me. I returned home, mission accomplished, inspired to experiment with materials that will add depth, character, and distinction to my work.

P.S. I never saw the beach.

Ken Carbone is an artist, designer, and recipient of the 2012 AIGA Medal. He is a Senior Advisor to 50,000feet, a strategic branding and design firm with offices in Chicago, New York, and London.

Images taken by the author; the art depicted is copyrighted by the artist.
Banner photo: author and Yayio Kusama’s Narcissus Garden, 1966.

Founded in 1972 on the Upper West Side, H&H Bagels has grown from a local favorite to a cultural institution cherished by New Yorkers. With plans to launch numerous new franchised and company-owned locations across the country, the challenge was clear: modernize the brand while staying true to its New York roots and appealing to a broader demographic.

As H&H Bagels prepares for a nationwide expansion, it has turned to the expertise of High Tide, a renowned New York City-based creative studio specializing in brand identity. High Tide is no stranger to building NYC fast-casual/dining brands, known for its work with Dig Inn, Sweet Chick, Mexicue, and many others. The goal: extend a warm invitation to people across America to indulge in the authentic taste of a New York City bagel.

We saw it as a huge responsibility to bring an iconic local institution to everyone in a way that showcases what makes NY culture so special.

Danny Miller, Founder and Creative Director, High Tide

For High Tide, the opportunity to reimagine H&H Bagels held personal significance. “This project brought back memories from my childhood of stopping by H&H on my way to Central Park,” explains High Tide’s Founder and Creative Director, Danny Miller. “We saw it as a huge responsibility to bring an iconic local institution to everyone in a way that showcases what makes NY culture so special.”

The transformation began with a new visual identity, encompassing everything from the website and packaging to signage and interior design elements for each physical location. The logo, featuring clean custom lettering set against a redesigned version of the original seal, strikes a balance between modernity and homage to the past.

Typography, photography, and color were carefully curated to convey a sense of accessibility and premium quality. A mix of serif, sans serif, and script typefaces adds depth and character, while vibrant pops of color inject energy and excitement into the brand’s visual language.

Jay Rushin, CEO at H&H Bagels, acknowledges the significance of this evolution: “As we embark on a new chapter with our national expansion, enhancing our visual identity was essential to delivering an elevated experience for our customers.” Miller adds, “Wherever someone experiences H&H, the brand should stand out – welcoming others to feel the excitement of eating a classic NYC bagel.”

With High Tide’s expertise, H&H Bagels is poised to captivate taste buds and hearts across the country, all while preserving the essence of a beloved New York institution.

In the process of rebranding, JOAN recognized the multitude of stories yet told. While striving for a gender-neutral system, they also acknowledge the intrinsic role gender plays in shaping its identity. A creative agency led by women is still a rarity in an industry largely dominated by men. Yet, JOAN thrives, boasting experience, passion, and leadership across advertising, design, production, and media.

Led by Anjela Freyja, JOAN’s internal design team crafted a visual identity reflecting the agency’s fighting spirit and commitment to growth and inclusivity. The new brand captures JOAN’s expressive, daring, crafted, relevant, and visionary DNA, appealing to corporate clients and cultural influencers.

• Soulful: Two warm, accessible, and friendly typefaces and candid office and project photography capturing the agency’s direct communication style
• Daring: An edgy, bold, highly-saturated color palette
• Crafted: A technical gridded design system that prioritizes attention to detail and technique communicates their craft expertise
• Relevant: Contemporary digital design, animation, and 3D techniques that flex the team’s savvy and knowledge and highlight the agency’s cultural relevance
• Visionary: A sharp logo inspired by Joan of Arc’s iconic sword, paying homage to the namesake and the origin of the agency’s name

The design elements, including warm typography, bold colors, technical design systems, and nods to cultural relevance, are complemented by sleek metal materials, reflecting JOAN’s bold personality. This new identity serves as a framework for their global expansion.

Beyond the expected updates to its website and social channels, JOAN’s rebrand includes unique collaborations such as one-of-a-kind merch with Ray’s NYC. While the brand draws inspiration from Joan of Arc, it also esteems other influential figures, embodying a commitment to storytelling and community engagement.

JOAN’s new brand identity is more than just a logo change; it celebrates its past, present, and future, honoring the diverse voices and talents of the JOAN community. Like those who came before them, they embrace their collective history, experiences, and talents, committed to sharing meaningful stories with the world. As they boldly declare, “We are JOAN.”

The Holdovers – Gelica

The Holdovers, directed by Alexander Payne and starring national treasure Paul Giamatti, is a dramedy set in 1970 about a group of kids at a prep school with no families to go home to over their holiday break. As a result, they stay behind with their curmudgeonly teacher (Giamatti), and heartwarming antics ensue. The film’s time period, the retro prep-school setting, and overarching feel-good warmth all ladder up to the Gelica typeface. Designed by Dave Rowland and published by Eclectotype Fonts, Gelica is an approachable, soft serif imbued with a classic and cheerful affect.

Anatomy of a Fall – Vienna Woodtype

In sharp contrast to The Holdovers’ feel-good, family-friendly vibe is the French film Anatomy of a Fall. Directed by Justine Triet, the film depicts the story of a woman attempting to prove her innocence in the death of her husband, who has fallen from their home’s attic window. The tone of the film is intensely suspenseful and gripping, which Vienna Woodtype (designed by Christoph Zeugswetter and published by xtoph) taps into with its ghostly wood-block printed effect. Zeugswetter used real prints made from a linocut to create the font, with each glyph handprinted, scanned, and then converted into a computer font.

Barbie – Belinda New

A film that has taken each facet of the design industry and every corner of our visual culture by storm, Barbie from Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie, is high femme with a powerful backbone. Belinda New by Melvastype strikes this same chord as a classic brush script that has strength and elegance in equal measure.

American Fiction – Typewriter 1950 Tech Mono

American Fiction, directed by Cord Jefferson and starring Jeffrey Wright, portrays the ridiculousness of our society’s obsession with a stereotypical concept of “Black” culture and entertainment through the story of a Black novelist at the end of his rope in the publishing industry. After penning a satire of a “Black” book that publishers and the public mistake as earnest literature, he finds himself at the center of a web of lies and social critique. Typewriter 1950 Tech Mono (designed by Manuel Viergutz and published by Typo Graphic Design) takes the style of a traditional Courier typewriter font that’s long been a visual shorthand for books and book publishing. Then, it subverts tradition with loose treatment of each letterform, harkening to the imperfections of screen-printing and protest signs.

Killers of the Flower Moon – Mesquite

Martin Scorsese’s Western crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon recounts the true story of the systematic serial murders of the Osage Indian tribe in Oklahoma in the 1920s once oil was discovered on their land. Starring (who but!) Leonardo DiCaprio, along with breakout star Lily Gladstone, the period piece harnesses a traditional Western visual language with a sinister, bloody twist. Mesquite is a Tuscan-style typeface from designer Joy Redick that elicits this same tone. It has a clear Western typographic foundation, dramatized by exaggerated sharp serifs.

Past Lives – Voyage

The romantic drama Past Lives by Celine Song, starring Greta Lee with Teo Yoo, encompasses a decades-long love story between two childhood friends from South Korea. The elegance and inherent romance of the typeface Voyage from VJ Type exudes the same tone. There’s a sentimentality to this display typeface, with delicate hairlines that loop backward and forward gracefully, connecting letters romantically like the characters in the film.

Maestro – Magnet

Bradley Cooper directs and stars in Maestro, which chronicles the lifelong relationship between Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein (Carey Mulligan). The ambitious, sweeping drama explores the complicated beauty and pain of a long-term relationship, which is not unlike the story behind the typeface Magnet by Inga Plönnigs for Frere-Jones.

Oppenheimer – Territory

A period thriller from Christopher Nolan starring Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer tells the true story of the invention of the atomic bomb during World War II. Territory by Reygraphic is a frenetic, experimental typeface based on graphic elements inspired by sound waves. The distorted energy and illegibility of Territory speaks to the disorientation of an explosion and the impact of the atomic bomb on society, and the lives of the people who brought it into being.

Territory also made it into our 2024 PRINT Typography Report.

Poor Things – Onyxia

Poor Things, starring Emma Stone, comes from the other-worldly mind of director Yorgos Lanthimos. The magical-realistic drama, with a dark comedic twist, spins the outrageous tale of the endlessly captivating Bella Baxter, who has been brought back to life by a mad scientist after her suicide. Much of the film is visually grotesque and unsettling, while simultaneously gorgeous and ornate. The highly contrasted display font Onyxia from Pixel Surplus portrays this same juxtaposition, with funky, overlapping characters and bendy letterforms that are at once wonky and elegant.

The Zone of Interest – Lombok Typeface

A period drama from director Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest tells the story of Rudolf Hess, a Nazi officer and Auschwitz commandant, and his family, who build an idealized life beside the camp. Glazer uses absence as a tool throughout the film, never revealing the imagery of the camp. Lombok from Alexandre Pietra similarly harnesses the power of absence and negative space by alluding to strategically removed aspects of letters.

I regularly think of the late Enzo Mari, a wholehearted and iconoclastic advocate for the power of DIY (design-it-yourself). Allesandro Mendini called him “design’s conscience.” He famously encouraged workers to engage their creativity and independent thought through antagonistic means. Instead of a flat-pack furniture manual, he gave you a drawing and some 2x4s to make a chair. By making things harder to use or more difficult to understand, Mari wasn’t just being contrarian; he was railing against passive consumption. Good design quietly exists, but bad design demands our attention, engagement, and introspection. His legacy is that of dissent against ‘good’ design—visible only in rebellion against the norm.

Good design is invisible.
Bad design is unignorable.

This rebellion is not new. Throughout history, a lot of good art has been bad design. The Dadaists and Brutalists both rejected the dominant aesthetic of their time. Instead of tradition, they embraced ugliness and absurdity. Through bad design, they pushed us out of our comfort zone, emphasizing engagement over ease.

Rei Kawakubo made us notice and interrogate our understanding of beauty and form. She used clothing to distort the body itself—a powerful statement against the maxims and assumptions of mainstream fashion. In film, the Dogme 95 movement created strict, absurd rules to frustrate and rethink mainstream cinema’s polished, formulaic productions. Their medium became the message.

Perhaps most poetically, the architects Arakawa and Madeline Gins took this a step further with their Bioscleave House—a literal embodiment of challenging norms through discomfort. The house, designed to disorient and provoke, refused to be invisible, demanding instead to be continually, consciously navigated and questioned. Athens-based architect Katerina Kamprani is another purveyor of discomfort-based design.

Mother Design, too, embraces the ‘bad’ as a strategy to disrupt and engage. The brand we created for Eyebeam, a not-for-profit art and technology center in New York City, exemplifies this approach. It’s uncomfortable—vibrating color combinations, graphic patterns that challenge prolonged viewing, and a font that disrupts the flow of text with unconventional and awkward letterforms. It never sits still, fidgeting in a constant state of flux. Overall, the brand forces the viewer to engage with a message’s medium before its meaning, turning the “crystal goblet” on its head.

In each of these cases—from art to fashion to architecture—it’s only the “failure” of design that made them successful. It’s only in the breakdown of convention that new ideas emerge. In other words, we must embrace ‘bad’ design to uncover ‘good.’ In a frictionless world, bad design is sandpaper. It challenges complacency. It makes us uncomfortable. People don’t like it. It forces them to engage, to question, and to think.

The Bauhaus, Marcel Duchamp, Kool Herc, the Sex Pistols, and the Memphis Group thrived on principles initially seen as flawed or ‘bad.’ Yet, each profoundly reshaped our cultural and aesthetic landscapes.

Bad design is not something to avoid; it’s a critical component not just of the creative process but of living. Like Mari taught, it’s about learning rather than following. It’s about entering a building and walking into a “purposeful guess.” It’s about watching a bad movie. It’s about wearing a funny hat. It’s about being weird. In embracing the ‘bad,’ we uncover the potential for transformation—both in design and in ourselves.

In a world where we laud good design for its invisibility, perhaps it’s time to celebrate the unignorable—the bad chairs, the frustrating UIs, the push handles on pull doors—designs that fail beautifully, teaching us more about our world and ourselves than perfection ever could.

This is a guest post written by Elliot Vredenburg, Associate Creative Director at Mother Design.

In 2014, Elliot was mistakenly sent an MFA instead of an MA by the California Institute of the Arts, so he decided to continue working in graphic design. For the past decade, he’s worked as a multidisciplinary designer with various organizations and individuals, creating powerful, concept-driven work.

He’s led and contributed to collaborative projects with notable artists, cultural institutions, and global companies, including Netflix, the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, MGM Studios, Alex Israel, and Universal Music Group. Sometimes, he’s a copywriter, too.

Bereal’s work, encapsulated in The Black Yearbook, offers an intimate portrayal of the joys, challenges, and truths encountered by Black students navigating higher education. The book challenges our societal narratives with honesty and depth, and in the process, Adraint Bereal opens our eyes.

I was fortunate enough to ask Bereal about his educational and creative journey in bringing The Black Yearbook to life; below is our interview.

(Interview edited for clarity and length).

Left: The Black Yearbook cover, Right: headshot of author Adraint Bereal

Bereal’s profoundly personal project began with his alma mater, the University of Texas. Through a collection of portraits, personal statements, and interviews, he provided a window into the lives of Black students in a predominantly white environment. Inspired by his initial exhibition, 1.7, a raw and candid portrait of the experiences of Black men at UT (1.7% of the student population), Bereal expanded his vision. He embarked on a nationwide exploration from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to predominantly white institutions and trade schools.

What sets Bereal’s approach apart is his commitment to showcasing more than just the trauma often associated with Black narratives. Instead, he amplifies stories of resilience, joy, and triumph amidst adversity, challenging societal perceptions and stereotypes.

In visiting schools for The Black Yearbook, what was a pivotal moment or encounter during your travels that deeply resonated with you and shaped your understanding of the complexities within the Black student experience?

AB: Traveling far west to Alaska to conclude my travels was such a reflective moment. The four to five months of travel were filled with the constant noise of trains, planes, and cars. My best friend accompanied me to Alaska, and it was the most peaceful moment I had experienced. Because The University of Alaska-Juneau is a relatively small campus, I interviewed only two students, which left me with a lot of time to relax—something I hadn’t really been able to do. On our second day in Alaska, my best friend and I hiked to see the Mendenhall Glacier, after which we found ourselves running back to our taxi in a snowstorm. The conversations with the 116 students were kind of like this – enthralling, and before you know it, you are caught in the middle of a storm trying to seek shelter. Work like this requires courage, and I learned I have no shortage of it while running into a storm head first.

The heart of The Black Yearbook lies in its dedication to honest dialogue. Each profile is a testament to the individuality of Black college experiences. Through stunning photography and compelling narratives, Bereal captures the essence of each interviewee, allowing their voices to shine through.

What struck me most about Bereal’s work was his design approach. Every page of The Black Yearbook bursts with energy and creativity, reflecting the diversity and vibrancy of the Black college experience. It’s a refreshing departure from the monolithic portrayal of higher education, offering a multifaceted representation that celebrates the richness of Black culture and identity.

You weave together interviews, photographs, and illustrations to capture the multifaceted narratives of Black students navigating the educational landscape. How did you approach the storytelling process to ensure that these narratives were accurately represented and celebrated in their fullness, capturing moments of joy and triumph alongside the challenges and adversities?

AB: Creating a book like this requires a lot of openness, and that’s at the core of each conversation. I went into each meeting with little to no expectations, knowing that the conversation could be as short as a few minutes or as long as a few hours. Had I approached this in a measured and solely quantitative way, I may not have been able to cut through surface-level conversations to reach a more personal and lived experience. Patience is a virtue.

The Black Yearbook has been described as both radical and reverent, offering a space for Black students to see themselves reflected while challenging societal prejudices. How can creative projects like yours contribute to conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusion within educational spaces, and what do you hope readers, particularly Black students, take away from your book?

AB: The Black Yearbook continues work previously done by artists and scholars such as Toni Morrison, Monroe Work, and W.E.B. Dubois. The increase in digital technologies has created a lack of physical media to preserve Black existence. We must be the architects of our narrative, and that is what I’ve done. I’ve created a lasting document of existence to preserve our stories for future generations. Understanding – that’s the takeaway.

In a society where mainstream narratives often overlook or stereotype Black experiences in higher education, The Black Yearbook serves as a powerful corrective. Bereal’s work challenges us to reframe our perceptions and embrace the complexity of Black college life. It’s a testament to the resilience, strength, and beauty of the Black community and a reminder of the importance of amplifying diverse voices in the narrative of higher education.

Founded in November 2006 by a team of insurance experts, Go.Compare has long been recognized for its meticulous approach to comparing various products and services, including insurance policies, financial products, energy tariffs, and more. Unlike traditional comparison sites, Go.Compare distinguished itself by prioritizing the display of policy details alongside prices, setting a new standard in the industry.

Over the years, Go.Compare’s mission has evolved while remaining steadfast in its commitment to providing reliable and comprehensive comparisons. The company has cultivated a vast network of trusted partners, ensuring users can access a wide range of reputable options. Authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (equivalent to the SEC in the US), Go.Compare offers users peace of mind in their decision-making process.

The rebrand signifies a strategic step forward for Go.Compare, solidifying its reputation as a dependable ally for consumers while injecting a burst of new life and character into the brand.

Go.Compare’s standout feature is its accessibility. The service is free for users, a testament to the company’s dedication to empowering consumers with transparent information.

Unlike others, Go.Compare doesn’t just list options; it serves up choices that are genuinely beneficial for users, placing their interests at the forefront,” says Max Ottignon, co-founder of Ragged Edge. “So we amplified that difference, positioning Go.Compare as the Champions of Choice.”

With an impressive 97% awareness rate, the recent rebranding initiative aims to capitalize on the website’s recognition and attract even more users. At the core of Ragged Edge’s rebrand is a genuine point of differentiation: Go.Compare is the sole comparison site accredited by BIBA (British Insurance Brokers’ Association), emphasizing trustworthiness in every recommendation.

“Ragged Edge worked closely with every part of our business to ensure they understood exactly what our aspirations were and how we wanted to evolve in the future,” says Paul Rogers, Marketing Director at Go.Compare. “Insurance can be heavy going – a grudge purchase. Ragged Edge has made it fun and rewarding. The rebrand has helped us to evolve visually and strategically and given us an even stronger sense of purpose, authority, and momentum as we continue to provide transparency and support for customers across a broad range of complex products.”

Central to the rebrand is the iconic figure of Gio Compario, Go.Compare’s beloved mascot. Gio, portrayed with exaggerated features in charming cartoon form, serves as the brand’s “choice champion,” advocating for users across every aspect of the Go.Compare experience.

In collaboration with artist Rami Niemi, the rebrand introduces an illustrative style that breathes life into the brand’s insurance products, departing from conventional stock imagery to offer a fresh, engaging visual narrative.

Complementing the visual overhaul is a new verbal identity – “the voice of choice” – characterized by relatable wit that resonates with customers. A custom-designed typeface adds warmth and character, reinforcing the brand’s distinctive personality.

The rebrand, designed to be instantly recognizable and scalable, ensures maximum visibility and engagement across various platforms. Ragged Edge’s collaboration with Go.Compare extends to the brand’s high-profile sponsorship of the Wales rugby union team, further solidifying its presence in the public eye.

The rebranding of Extreme Reach to XR signifies more than a name change; it represents a bold reach into the future. XR partnered with brand studio Athletics to create an identity embodying purposeful momentum and enlightened performance driven by insight. The new identity reflects a modernist aesthetic infused with imagination, drawing inspiration from diverse sources, including fashion, skincare, film culture, and research consultancies.

XR’s distinctive logomark, centered around the letter “X,” is the nucleus of the rebrand. The mark symbolizes versatility and intelligence. It breathes through subtle animations, adding a dynamic element that mirrors XR’s forward-thinking ethos. Including a transitional asset incorporating the entire Extreme Reach wordmark ensures continuity during the brand transition.

The approach to color is highly differentiated, evoking warmth and boldness. With its analog, tactile feel, the color palette instantly distinguishes XR. In photography, the accentuated blur captures the essence of motion and dynamism, reinforcing XR’s commitment to progress and forward momentum.

The expanded visual system utilizes dynamic, generative patterns composed of language and letterforms to create a variety of motifs and textures. XR has developed a custom tool that generates on-brand patterns with minimal input to ensure consistency and scalability, empowering its team to scale the brand efficiently.

The supergraphic, featuring enlarged letterforms from the logomark’s “X,” is a versatile framing device. Beyond its aesthetic appeal, the supergraphic plays a crucial role in building equity and recognition for XR’s newly abbreviated brand name, reinforcing its identity across various touchpoints.

Video, UI, and animation are integral to XR’s storytelling strategy, illustrating the entire production process from ideation to outcome. Graphic elements overlaid on video provide insightful annotation, highlighting XR’s understanding of the industry and its role in facilitating seamless implementation.

XR’s rebrand marks a significant milestone in its journey. With its forward-thinking identity and cutting-edge technology, XR is poised to continue shaping the future of entertainment, driving productions forward with insights and creativity. 

Another groovy project done by Athletics was their recent rebranding of the Seattle Sounders.

As someone blissfully lost in the magic of minutiae at the cost of the big picture, here are a few highlights from the cache of covers that have been published or announced this month:

• Eliot Weinberger thrives in the experimental, defying expectation in various literary contortions and distortions. And thus his new book—“not a translation of individual poems, but a fictional autobiography of Tu Fu derived and adapted from the thoughts, images and allusions in the poetry”—was a delightfully straightforward fit with the stylings of Oliver Munday.
• For a novel that explores identity, Janet Hansen’s cover for Ask Me Again no doubt distills the essence of Clare Sestanovich’s prose. But tear it off the binding and it could work as an LP cover. Blow it up and it’s a poster. Throw it in a frame and hang it in an exhibition of your choice. With a few stark ingredients and an entrancing palette, Hansen’s alchemy is magnetic.
• And finally: When you look at Jamie Keenan’s cover for You Glow in the Dark, you will wonder: Did he really do it?! Well, in what had to be a mountain of utterly maddening work, yep, he really did.

The brainchild of Mario Carpe, a Spain-based graphic designer, You Are My Type, explores the visual nature of words. When Carpe stepped away from his usual illustrative work to experiment with typography, he immediately found an incredible build-up of creative energy, enough to produce the body found in the three volumes, with presumably more to come. Using a relatively straightforward process, Carpe started with rough sketches, which he pulled into Illustrator to manipulate and test layouts. The designer used many familiar phrases and quotes but wanted to go beyond the words’ known meaning to embody the words and phrases expressively.

Carpe’s compositions communicate through his experimentation with type, but each volume has a thematic element. You Are My Type Vol. 1 is inspired by our social and working lives. The second volume explores diverse themes, from love and passion to self and societal commentary. In volume 3, Carpe delves into humorous introspection and personal growth, with a little social critique on the side.

Each work within the series presents letters as more than symbols; they are vessels of emotion, meaning, and thought.

Mario Carpe

Individually, the compositions express meaning, emote, inspire, notice, and protest. When viewed as a whole, the compilation is visual candy, a dazzling visual array. You Are My Type is a studio-ready flip book of color and typographic inspiration.

Images © Mario Carpe.

The west-coast-based brand strategy and interactive studio People People is committed to helping companies across the Northwest and beyond discover and tell their stories — and have been doing so for over 20 years.

The brief from Thorntail was clear: create a visual identity as light, energetic, and uplifting as the beverage itself. People People’s solution? An abstract illustration of a thorntail hummingbird, complemented by a script typeface and tones of teal influenced by the Blue Weber agave plant.

Thorntail defies categorization—it’s not quite a seltzer or tequila, but something entirely new. This presented both a challenge and an opportunity. Rather than following the usual tropes of the market, People People sought to break away from the norm and communicate the product’s uniqueness.

The packaging needed to feel fresh, vibrant, and invigorating, mirroring the attributes of the beverage. Inspired by the Blue Weber agave plant, the brand’s light and dark teal blues evoke a brightness that reflects Thorntail’s refreshing taste. Maintaining color consistency across all packaging was a strategic move to bolster brand recognition, a departure from the common practice of changing backgrounds per flavor.

Drawing inspiration from Thorntail’s namesake—the thorntail hummingbird—People People created an abstract illustration of the bird, symbolizing upward flight for an uplifting feel. A script typeface inspired by the hummingbird’s graceful movements adds a touch of elegance to the brand’s visual identity.

‘Hard Agave’ or ‘Fermented Hard Agave’ is prominently displayed alongside the logo and product name to intrigue consumers. With limited packaging space for detailed information, Thorntail’s website serves as a hub for in-depth education, featuring a playful infographic detailing the production journey of hard agave from farm to can.

People People’s creative approach ensures that Thorntail Hard Agave stands out on the shelves and resonates with consumers seeking a unique and refreshing experience. In a market saturated with choices, Thorntail’s brand identity soars above the rest as a beacon of originality.

The central idea behind the updated brand is encapsulated in the phrase “Do right by nature,” highlighting NYBG’s commitment to studying, protecting, learning from, and enjoying nature. It serves as a call to action and recognizes NYBG’s leading role in environmental stewardship.

The new brand voice mirrors the tone and spirit of New York and the Bronx, embodying optimism, empathy, and purpose. It aims to convey NYBG’s enthusiasm for the natural world, promote inclusivity, and demonstrate expertise.

A redesigned logo emphasizes the NYBG abbreviation in a bolder, more contemporary style, blending the essence of New York City with the Garden’s natural beauty. The typography, featured in our 2024 Typography Report, draws inspiration from hand-drawn natural forms, symbolizing confidence and impact.

Curious about the strategy behind the project, I spoke with Jane Boynton, senior creative director, and Ana Camargo, lead strategist of Wolff Olins. NYBG’s CMO, Michael Crowley, also weighed in. Our conversation is below (edited for length and clarity).

With a vision of deepening community connections while expanding environmental action, what specific elements of the brand refresh aim to strengthen local ties while also addressing global environmental concerns?

AC: The former identity, while elegant, had some cues of a “white box gallery” — where maybe not everyone feels welcome, and not everyone feels seen—places where you usually can’t touch the art. The Garden is such a sensory experience. So we wanted to make sure that in the evolution of the brand, we created a platform in which many different audiences could feel welcome, connected, and seen in the brand. Addressing those issues locally helps us tackle them from a global perspective.

We also wanted to reclaim the fact that this is a New York cultural institution and own that with pride. So, as we thought about the tone of voice being more approachable and empathetic, we also wanted it to be deliberate. We wanted it to be a straight shooter, like New Yorkers are, and residents of the Bronx.

We want NYBG to feel like everyone can own it, from the neighbors to the trustees, the board of directors, and the investors. We created the brand to flex according to all those audiences, from the neighbors to the people who visit the Garden physically, the people who visit online, the people who do research connected to the Garden, and the trustees.

The brand refresh includes a new logo that unites the spirit of New York City with the natural beauty of the Garden. How does the new logo, with its references to natural forms, reflect the personality and impact of NYBG?

JB: The old logo already stood for the ongoing impact on preservation the brand was actively doing and its participation within the local community. So we didn’t want to throw those associations away. We’d like to think that we took the previous logo and amplified it.

Our big, beautiful idea for the New York Botanical Garden is this concept of doing right by nature. Unpacking that idea, the ‘do right’ refers to the active state of the organization, the call to action, the study of nature, the protection of it, the enjoyment of it, and the learning from it. That ‘do right’ is expressed through the boldness of the letter forms. They evoke a sense of confidence that speaks to the organization’s impact and leadership. 

The boldness also speaks to nature. Think about when nature is at its best, and it’s thriving, it’s lush, and it’s rich, and it’s full of form. It’s not skinny. That boldness speaks to where we want nature to be in that thriving state. That boldness is also a nod to the spirit and attitude of New York and the Bronx. We are New Yorkers, and our boldness and confidence in that sense of being direct is part of what identifies us.

Bringing all of these things together, we’re hoping the new logo unites that iconic spirit of New York with the natural beauty of the Garden, paired with the active nature of the people behind the organization fighting against climate change and biodiversity loss.

AC: What I also love, of all the things that Jane has already mentioned, is the ‘doing’ – the action – and the ‘by nature’, which has this beautiful idea of side by side with nature. It’s not behind nature. It’s not in front of nature. It’s not that nature is leading, and we need to follow. We wanted to convey a symbiotic relationship. Because I think part of why we’ve gotten into this environmental mess is because humans have forgotten that we are nature.

Doing right’ is everything the Garden does: taking that perspective of the plants and doing right by them, speaking for them, researching them, and bringing their wisdom and intelligence to life.

The photography is from nature’s perspective, ranging from intimate to immersive shots. How does this POV contribute to telling the story of NYBG, and how does it create a more engaging and immersive experience for visitors?

JB: This element in the toolkit was already working hard for the client. The Garden really invests in photography. They have a photographer on staff and an incredible library of stunning images.

So, our task was more about how we can better align the photography moving forward with this idea of ‘do right by nature.’ Photography offers the opportunity to amplify that wonder in nature and its ability to teach, guide, and inspire us

For the style of the photography, we drew on a diverse set of different angles and perspectives, which allowed us to capture more surprising and unexpected views of all the plants, people, and the place. And more specifically, it’s from nature’s angle or perspective. What would nature’s perspective be if we’re embodying ‘do right by nature’? How would a bird see the Garden? We put nature behind the lends to try to capture the spirit and vitality of this wonderful place and how being here can shift all of our perspectives.

AC: This is a really important point. It’s also part of the evolution we considered because if we’re thinking about that shift, to remember that we’re all part of nature, photography that focuses on the plants and the fungi, it’s easy to forget that we’re part of the same system. As Jane said, that was a vital element to bring the people back in to make all those audiences feel seen and part of that environment.

How do you see the updated brand identity actively contributing to and supporting ecological initiatives? How can a strong brand presence influence public perception and participation in sustainability efforts?

AC: Our client was already doing so many amazing things. Our job was to take those actions, enhance them, and amplify them. As we expand the brand to be more empathetic, welcoming, deliberate in how it shows up, proud, and more New York and the Bronx, that platform can strengthen the brand’s presence and put more weight behind it.

Then, NYBG can use that weight behind its sustainability initiatives. We wanted to make sure that more people care about the environment and engage in sustainability initiatives as they’re drawn into the new brand.

Sometimes, when you see brands or NGOs showing up, the discourse focuses on the things that you need to lose for the planet to gain or for the planet to thrive. We wanted to make sure that NYBG communicates in such a way that doesn’t revolve around what any of us has to give up for the planet to continue functioning. It’s about what we can all gain in a more sustainable life, in a more conscious way of being on this planet. We wanted to bring more folks into that conversation through beauty, abundance, and through that lens of what is there for all of us to gain.

What was the most interesting thing you experienced working through this rebrand with the New York Botanical Garden while developing this project?

JB: I represent a lot of the general public in the area in that I didn’t realize there was all this incredible research and rigor behind the organization. I only saw NYBG as a place, as an experience to visit the train or the orchid show. I didn’t realize that behind all of that are these incredible climate and science research efforts. And it’s very inspiring. It’s what makes NYBG unique and different. And to Ana’s point, it is the reason to get people to care. And so that was a big, eye-opening moment when I understood the full breadth of this organization.

AC: So it’s not just a visual transformation by any means. It’s a way to signal to the world all of these amazing things NYBG has been thinking about and putting into practice as an organization and will continue to accelerate over the next few years.

How does the ‘Do right by nature’ idea translate into practical initiatives or programs within the NYBG’s mission and activities?

MC: ‘Do right by nature’ reflects NYBG’s longstanding commitment to plants, fungi, and the natural world. Since our founding in 1891, our mission and activities have centered around three pillars — science, horticulture, and education — that bring plants and people together. We’re helping nature to thrive so that humanity can thrive.

Branching Out, our strategic plan for 2024-2030 includes longstanding NYBG programs and new initiatives to help us achieve five goals, all of which serve people, plants, and the planet. Bronx-centric programs serve our local community through projects such as Bronx Green-Up, which supports hundreds of community gardens, urban farms, and school gardens across the borough, and Bronx Neighbors, which provides free access to our grounds for residents. As a cultural destination in NYC, we help people to find peace and well-being in our natural oasis. Educational programs bring children close to nature from a young age to incubate the environmentalists of tomorrow. And our scientific research programs are re-centered through a lens of environmental action, focusing our diverse efforts around goals addressing the dual climate and biodiversity crisis.

What initiatives is NYBG undertaking to more fully engage with climate and biodiversity crises? How does the new brand inspire public engagement and action towards a sustainable and biodiverse future?

MC: New initiatives include the program for Urban Conservation Strategy, a research and engagement platform that will engage with local and international non-profit and research partners to advance urban resilience and assist decision-makers across New York City— and in cities around the world. The Bronx River Watershed Health & Resilience Program will be a collaboration between our scientists, horticulturists, and local partners to develop local outreach and plant-based strategies to improve our local ecosystem. We will prioritize high-impact research collaborations across various areas where our researchers have expertise, including nature conservation, restoration, and sustainable agriculture. We are committed to pursuing botanical and fungal research with applications that will serve the planet. The new brand foregrounds NYBG Science with its own style treatment, which draws attention to the incredible research conducted by our scientists. Overall, our new positioning as “plant people” creates a more cohesive identity for our entire staff and programs, uniting science, horticulture, and education experts to apply all of our resources to the broader mission of doing right by nature.

The new brand identity is described as an active, bold, and welcoming presence that connects and inspires. How does the brand aim to foster a sense of connection to nature and the NYBG mission among diverse audiences, including current and future generations?

MC: Every aspect of the new brand identity—from the logo to the color palette to the brand voice—was designed to celebrate science and nature and to create a more welcoming and vibrant experience for our guests. The refreshed logo takes inspiration from iconic New York City designers and institutions, but you’ll also find nods to nature hidden within. The logo and our new custom typeface, NY Botanical Gothic, are full of organic shapes and draw inspiration from posters from the environmental movement of the 1960s and ‘70s. We also created a special logo treatment to represent NYBG Science, signifying our scientists’ microscopic view of the plant world.

The colors we use in our new branding are inspired by nature and named after various plants and fungi. Our vibrant color palette is more welcoming and, in combination with the bold typeface, draws visitors in to learn more. It’s a reflection of the biodiversity found on our grounds and represents our diverse city and the borough we call home. After all, the Bronx is NYC’s greenest borough! Our brand reflects the Garden’s 133-year history while looking ahead to a bright and botanical future. NYBG is so many things for so many people – a place of respite in a concrete jungle, a place for cutting-edge scientific research, a place to experience art and culture – and our new brand embraces each of these roles, not just for today, but for the generations of purposeful plant people that follow.

The recently released 2024 PRINT Typography report speaks to an intense balancing act between legacy and future impact of typefaces. This renewed identity for NYBG is evidence of this consideration, with a custom wordmark that is a confident, bold, and impactful embodiment of the organization’s call to action.

The Greatest Show on Earth?

When a brand’s value is tethered to its ability to reflect an entire culture in a highly digital landscape fragmented by personalized algorithms, where does that leave typography? 

All over the place. 

Culture writer Kian Bakhtiari mapped out a few societal pinpoints in 2023 for Forbes, citing, “the abundance of information creates a poverty of attention. Finite time makes attention the most valuable commodity in the world. Some of the world’s biggest companies like Google, Meta, and TikTok trade in attention, not products or services.”

In recent years, documentaries like Netflix’s The Social Dilemma echo this, tracing how tech monsters design their platforms to keep us engaged in this loop, selling our attention to advertisers. 

As we hitch our energy to social media, we ignore our addiction to it and other looming dangers like fossil fuels and artificial ignorance. Typographic feats in 2024 promise to soothe our vulnerability to the impacts of our dependencies. But will type prove to be more of a spectacle or antidote? 

While our existence on this planet is mired in fog, the line for the greatest show on earth is queuing up: type in the age of Artificial Intelligence. As Rudy Sanchez reported from last year’s Adobe MAX conference, “If there remained lingering doubts that we’ve entered the age of A.I.-assisted design, Adobe’s MAX conference erased them.”

Designers will turn to type escapism. Typography will be the balm in an increasingly irritated society.

Letterforms will be more acrobatic—performing stunts, magic acts, and high-flying feats. Step right up; we are ruinously unprepared for the circus of type.

BOLD STRIDES, BOLDER TYPE: Activism & Social Justice

Connecting to a new generation means brands have to engage in more meaningful ways than simply offering a product or service. More conceptual forms of relevancy that consider community, social issues, belonging, and hyper-relevant content are emerging. Type is one supple mechanism to this end. Another? Design criticism.

The design arm of the creative agency Mother brought activism and social justice together in one inflatable reality called The Bliss Sofa. It’s a floating Swiss-Army-inspired sofa that converts into a life raft, complete with a paddle and emergency lights. With cushions upholstered in the same orange fabric used to make life jackets and an optional ottoman that doubles as storage, the piece is a cheeky critique of climate change oblivion and will come in handy when the glaciers melt. Mother aims to sell the piece and donate some of the proceeds to the United Nations Refugee Agency.

The Bliss Sofa exploration is in direct conversation with Mother Design’s rebrand of Brooklyn Org, which strives to bring a new voice to modern philanthropy. 

According to Design Director Kozue Yamada, “As we explored, we looked at a lot of different condensed typefaces for the wordmark. We were inspired by aspects of PP Formula but ultimately wanted to create something much more condensed, adding rectangular counters and ink traps to reflect the nuances of Brooklyn blocks and streets.”

With the inspiration supplied by Brooklyn’s dense city blocks, the team selected Community Gothic as the voice of the Organization. For Yamada, “We wanted to use a typeface which was born in America, specifically in Brooklyn. Community Gothic was made by Frere-Jones Type, who are based in Brooklyn – a few blocks away from us!”

Yamada also studied other typefaces in the social activism space for inspiration, like Vocal Type’s Martin, citing, “Brooklyn Org has a bold vision and big goals, so the wordmark needed to reflect that. We wanted the logo to feel big, substantial – like a place where people can come together. We wanted to distance them from the tropes of philanthropy branding and create something vibrant and new.”

Typefaces tied to social activism are emphatic, human, and designed for rally cries and anthems. It’s a tradition established by Angel Bracho’s Victory of 1945, printed in celebration of the Allied victory in World War II, and Emory Douglas’ graphic work for the Black Panthers as seen in his Free Huey posters. Today, this legacy of social activism continues in the culture and education sectors, with typography choices even more reflective of local culture.

Examples: Community Gothic by Frere-Jones Type (left), Alt Riviera by ALT.TF (top right); T1 Korium by T1 Foundry (middle); Resist Mono by Groteskly Yours Studio (bottom right).

A SPIN AROUND THE OLD BLOCK:
Neo Displays

Neo Displays are proliferating, particularly when modernizing long-standing institutions with precious heritages.

The image to the left was created in Midjourney with the prompt, “A spin around the old block Neo displays.”

Marked by a new spin on typography that pays homage to the neon lights and signs of yesterday’s entertainment districts, Neo Displays perform an intense balancing act between legacy and future impact.

Led by Senior Creative Director Jane Boynton and Associate Creative Director Melissa Chavez, the recently renewed identity for New York Botanical Gardens (NYBG) by Wolff Olins is evidence of this consideration, with a custom wordmark that is a confident, bold, and impactful embodiment of the organization’s call to action. “The idea behind the wordmark and typeface came from our desire to pay homage typographically to the city of New York, given NYBG has firmly been rooted in the Bronx for 132 years,” they explain, continuing, “New York City is like a candy store for typography, so it’s hard to know where to begin. The International Typeface Corporation (ITC) came up often in our research phase, which is no surprise given its prominence in the city. As did typographers and designers like Tony DiSpigna, Ed Benguiat, Tom Carnase, and, of course, Herb Lubalin. We knew that we wanted the logo to celebrate our sense of place in New York City and the Bronx, as well as crafting forms that alluded to nature. We also decided on a bolder weight for the forms that speak both to the confidence and directness of being a New Yorker and as a reference to nature because when nature is at its best and thriving, it is lush, rich, and full of form.”

The team drew upon NYBG’s existing equity of advocacy, which is as rich as the gardens whose pathways provided the direct forms of the supporting graphic language. The new identity amplifies the institution’s heritage with a new unifying confidence. Boynton, Chavez, and their team were deeply engaged with the gardens, noting, “This immersion was essential to the work, as it underscored that NYBG is not just a beautiful garden, but also a scientific laboratory, a policy-influencing research institution, and a community anchor. A new look for NYBG couldn’t just be beautiful or organic. It also had to convey the weight of the institution, the rigor and precision of its scientific pursuits, and the accessibility of its various community outreach programs. This confluence of ideas is most clearly reflected in the forms of the wordmark.”

To complete the wholly unmistakable logo, set in black, the team built a colorful world around it, expounding, “Supporting typefaces GT Super and Martian Mono provide both an elegance and scientific precision that allow for flexibility in communications. The color palette itself is inspired by the breadth of plants, trees, fungi, algae and even the Bronx River that runs through the Garden, and the map graphics reinterpret an essential piece of the Garden in a new and unexpected way, emphasizing the entirety of its 250 acres.” Ultimately, this invites the magnitude of the NYBG’s many purposes under one inviting banner that is warm, direct, and with a hint of attitude.  

Similarly, Pentagram created a new identity for the Shakespeare Theater Company that expresses the ongoing relevance of Shakespeare while enhancing the contemporary spin that the theater brings to the Bard’s timeless stories. For instance, it frequently presents Shakespeare’s classic texts with a fresh angle, highlighting topics such as diversity, inclusivity, and tolerance while reflecting on universal themes including love, power, greed, life, and death.

Pentagram partner Marina Willer proposed a creative expression centered around the “interplay between a broad range of dimensions,” including classic and contemporary, artist and audience, stage and digital, entertaining and learning, intimate and collective, real and unreal – as a way of “reimagining stories from the past for audiences of the future.”

Examples: Cairo’s Film My Design by Maram Al Refaei (left); VT Fly by Jose Manuel Vega (top right); Team GB Paris 2024 by Thisaway and typographer Lewis McGuffie (middle and bottom right).

ARTIFICIAL HYPE:
A.I. Generated Type

Humankind is prompting Large Language Models (LLMs) and A.I. image generators to produce texts, images, and videos. Designers are also harnessing A.I., creating a space for the technology in established processes.

The image to the left was created in Adobe Firefly.

A.I. gives designers the ability to output letterforms quickly, while generating new imagined futures. Yet the natural eye does not easily distinguish between A.I.-generated media and truth. Enter the slippery slope, as generated images have immense value when they are so close to reality.

Challenging this interplay of type, form, and culture is Vernacular, an independent publisher run by Italian-Colombian graphic and type designer Andrea A. Trabucco Campos and Uruguayan graphic designer Martin Azambuja. In the sold-out first run of Artificial Typography, the established designers explore A-Z letterforms imagined by A.I. through the lens of 52 artists throughout art history.

In an interview by Steven Heller, the pair states, “There was a major breakthrough in 2015 with automated image captioning. As the name suggests, this study allows describing the content of an image in words. After that, it was natural to play the other way around and see what image would appear depending on the word selection.”

Prompting A.I. with ‘Letter R in The Equatorial Jungle, a painting by Henri Rousseau,’ emits a dazzling array of jungle fantasy Rs, with all the post-impressionist trimmings of the artist’s hand. Or ‘Letter B by Louise Bourgeois, crochet’ produces a row of bulbous, handknit Bs.

In the early stages of A.I., designers are primarily exploring text-to-image models, shifting their role slightly from creator to curator. 

&Walsh enlisted the A.I. platform DALL-E in their recent rebrand of Isodope, a nonprofit striving to teach the benefits of nuclear energy as a clean, sustainable energy source in a climate-crisis world. Since Isodope’s classroom is virtual across Gen Z platforms like TikTok, &Walsh strategically met technology with technology. Using DALL-E enabled the design team to create visual potentials, and the outcomes also led to new possible directions. Ultimately, the collaboration arrived in a new dimension, literally. The bold, forward motion of the wordmark and glitchy glow of the supporting icons paired with a dimensional grid bring an imagined future of galactic learning.

Jessica Walsh told It’s Nice That, “There will always be a place for designers and traditional craft to help shape the A.I. outputs and push it to realms even further than we could have imagined. However, there will be the option of spending less time on tedious tasks and more time on pushing the creative, the concept or the product.”

The big question is, will General Artificial Intelligence (GIA) ever allow machines to understand and contribute to the world without us? A.I. remains largely exploratory for now, but once it begins to create more compelling stories without any prompt, stay vigilant. Designers must stay ahead of automated intelligence and decide how to integrate it with their work.

A sampling of A.I. Tools:

• DALL-E is a text-to-image prompt that generates images.
• Alfont is an A.I. powered type generator.
• Runway has a suite of imaging and motion tools.
• Cavalry brings procedural and node-based design into 2D (previously only possible in expensive 3D software).
• Adobe Firefly offers a host of generative tools for designers across the Creative Cloud (and many more on the horizon).
• Monotype has launched a new A.I. font-pairing tool.

CONTORTIONISM:
Letterform Abstraction

The movement of illegible display typography has been ramping up for a few years. It will continue to do so with new technologies, though its origins predate humans altogether. In 2017 and 2018, archaeologists uncovered evidence in South African caves of Homo naledi, an early human ancestor (which lived about 335,000 to 236,000 years ago), who intentionally buried their dead holding writing tools and made crosshatch engravings  in cave walls that predate earliest known pictorial rock engravings. 

Hieroglyphics (c. 3200 BC–AD 400) advanced this ancient practice into a formal language that combined logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic elements, with more than 100 distinct characters. 

Graffiti dawned in the 1970s with abstract letterforms, combining anonymity with original expression—the latter eventually canceling out the primary as viewers became more familiar with a particular writer’s style. Brands today are gunning for this more proprietary and signature approach to letterforms.

Wolff Olins used abstraction and motion to create a post-pandemic identity for Seoul’s Leeum Museum of Art, with convergence at its heart. The logo, designed to move, reads as an entity rather than a word, partly because it’s reminiscent of the building’s architecture. But look closer, and the forms begin to emerge: L-E-E-U-M. The interaction it inspires across several museum touchpoints is like what’s happening around graffiti in your neighborhood, inviting a closer look.  

Graffiti is hyper-abstraction at its best, giving abandoned and forgotten spaces a sense of ownership. Designers will continue to mine graffiti not only for its wild forms but also for its originality and distinct letterforms. The more our eyes learn to read abstract type, the more we will see this approach realized in logos, campaigns, and branded content.

Past Examples: (Top series) Lance Wyman, symbol for the Metro of Mexico City, as seen in Graphis Annual 69|70, edited by Walter Herdeg, The Graphis Press, Zurich, 1969; (Bottom series) Subscription to Mischief: Graffiti Zines of the 1990s exhibition at Letterform Archive, featuring: Greg Lamarche/Sp.One (@gregbfb), original lettering for the answer key in Skills issue 4, 1993; John Langdon (@6ambigram9), original art for the Philadelphia T-Shirt Museum, 1988; Handstyle master Leonard “Jade” Liu.

Present Examples: (top) Channel 4 (bespoke/in-house type); (bottom two images) Nike Pixo by Fernando Curcio drew inspiration from “pichação” and graffiti, which have long been integral to the urban landscapes of major cities and Nike’s visual world.

SIDESHOW SENSATIONS:
Type Oddities & Flamboyance

3D & Inflatable Lettering

Inflatables in design have become popularized through many moments in history. Felix the Cat appeared as a giant float in the first Macy’s Day Parade in 1924. Andy Warhol’s 1966 Silver Clouds floated in and around his factory.

Seventies conceptual art couldn’t get enough—from Antfarm’s “Clean Air Pod” to Yutaka Murata, Pavillon du groupe Fuji, Osaka (below). And topping the list are the notebook-perfected bubble letters of the 1980s. 

There’s an inherent escapism in inflatable/3D lettering because it transports us to our happy place. It’s youthful, absurd, and playful. It’s soft, comforting, and cartoonish. It’s a style perfected by type design legend Ed Benguait. Responsible for some 600 typefaces, including his namesake Benguiat, he created classics like Bookman and Souvenir, not to mention his heavy-hitting iconic logos for Esquire, The New York Times, and more recently, Stranger Things. And if this last one seems hauntingly familiar, that’s because acclaimed horror author Stephen King used Benguiat’s self-titled font for many of his novel covers. 

We have a lot going on in our world, and fonts with volume and mass meet the moment with a play on absurdity and innocence. Expect this style to pop up in music venue posters, streetwear, and edgier campaigns.

Past Examples: “WNBC-TV News 4 New York Designs for Promotion” mechanical, Ed Benguiat; Benguiat Bravado Black 10, Photo-Lettering’s 1967 Alphabet Yearbook, New York, 1967; “Fat Stuff” in hand-lettered Benguiat Charisma.

Present Examples: Wonka (not pictured); Nordstrom Rack (not pictured); Good Girl (top left);⁠ Nike Campaign (Flip the Game) (top right); Alright Studio: Luaka Bop Website (middle); WIM, HK (bottom left); RTS Cambridge Convention by Kiln (bottom right).

Polished Glitch

This nod to bringing textural noise to letterforms gets a modification with contemporary tools that bring a luster to grungy 90s graphics, as seen in the work of David Carson and the legendary Art Chantry’s work in the 80-90s Seattle music scene. Chantry famously quipped, “Grunge isn’t even a style: it’s a marketing term coined by Sub Pop’s Bruce Pavitt to sell punk music.”

We can trace Chantry’s exuberant work and what Chermayeff & Geismar and Robert Brownjohn did for the 1962 album cover Vibrations to 2023’s Spotify Wrapped graphics and a plethora of other glitchy cues surfacing in font design. 

Examples: Territory by REY (Reinaldo Camejo) (top left and top right); Disrupt by REY (Reinaldo Camejo), guided by Martin Lorenz (middle right); Domino Mono by Sun Young Oh (bottom left); Powerplay poster by Jude Gardner-Rolfe (bottom right).

Type Rebirths

No other font family has endured through the ages quite like Gothic lettering. The neo–Gothic alphabet emerged from the Fraktur typeface, which was prevalent in Germany until the beginning of the twentieth century. Combining stable forms with unexpected hand flourishes, this ancient style continues to find relevance today. It’s remarkable to watch this old-world classic find a multitude of contemporary iterations, giving a personal touch and gravitas to digital fonts. We are seeing new forms of ornamentation rendered not by hand but by machine, making way for newer ultra-gothic fonts in editorial typography and logo design lettering.

You can see this evolution in a continuation of The Vienna Succesion’s creative glory, on display in Letterform Archive’s latest book, which reproduces all 14 issues of arguably the first modern graphic design magazine. More than a rich sourcebook of early 20th-century graphic trends, Die Fläche (“The Surface” in English) shows the lasting impact of this movement, proving that riotous color and flamboyant forms can—with a new twist—work beyond posters, endpapers, bookmarks, and playing cards. 

In both cases, heritage typefaces reappear through the filter of type treatments that celebrate flatness, expressive geometry, and stylized lettering.

Examples: Fayte by That That Creative (top left); Grundtvig Typeface by REY (Reinaldo Camejo), guided by Leon Romero (specimen and inspiration on right); Rumble Kill by Invasi Studio (bottom).

Type’s expansion in the year ahead will be spectacular, with creative letterers embracing the elasticity of our current societal drivers: gender, demographics, and spirituality. With each of us in our bubbles of adaptive algorithms and varying social concerns, type must perform its greatest act yet: appeal to disparate individuals under one strategic banner.

Type is no longer about simple communication. Now, letterforms are chasing new soul-stirring ends that calm, enchant, thrill, humor, and mesmerize us.

A brand’s longevity requires future-proofing through inclusivity and storytelling, and type must encapsulate similar fluidity. Because we are increasingly a multidimensional and complex society, our letterforms are evolving into malleable crystalline forms through A.I. and other technologies that allow letters to quickly hop in and out of prompted scenarios. While Herman Miller is back in its Helvetica Era, other brands and institutions are embracing the new era.

Typography must be increasingly pliable, proprietary, astonishing, and marvelous. We’re all gathered under its big tent, seeking a bliss point that electrifies us. With a fuse lit by A.I., type is skyrocketing out of a cannon into the unknown, obliged to be distinct yet encompassing in one magnificent stroke.

In tumultuous times, bold brands thrive on unique viewpoints, meaningful collaboration, creative bravery, and unwavering craftsmanship; precisely the approach taken by French start-up OLALA!

Founders François Blum and Simon Ferniot understand that taste remains paramount in consumer choices, especially in the plant-based industry. With this focus on taste, they revamped their brand design to propel their plant-based seafood globally. Teaming up with EVERLAND, a global consumer brand and design agency based in Scandinavia, they developed a comprehensive strategy encompassing brand positioning, communication, activation, and visual identity.

With a mission to provoke good growth through strategy, innovation, creativity, and consumer experiences, EVERLAND shapes bold future-looking consumer brands.

“When nearly all competitors focus on rationality and sustainability, we focus on the emotional aspects of having a great meal. Desires and tastes make for a much more robust platform”, explains Mads Hauge Lindum, Senior Brand Strategist at EVERLAND.

OLALA! crafted a product appealing to gourmet food enthusiasts, not just vegans and vegetarians. The new strategy and identity prioritizes taste excellence and ensures it’s reflected in every aspect of the brand, from casual conversations to formal communication. Even the name OLALA! reflects a well-known feeling – “Ooh là là” in French – a pleasant surprise. All communication revolves around great taste, delightful surprises, and the joy of savoring quality seafood.

We want to make waves, “ says Simon Ferniot, CEO & Co-founder at OLALA!. “We’re here to challenge the market but do it sustainably. Everland helped build a platform for breaking through the ordinary and creating lasting change for the better.”

OLALA! drew its visual inspiration from bistro culture, ​catering to food enthusiasts through its premium yet subtle branding. The design emphasizes the centrality of the meal experience, with off-white tones reminiscent of tablecloths and golden illustrations elevating the presentation. The logo reinforces the message of quality, healthfulness, and environmental friendliness. Currently offering six products, including “Salmonderful,” “Tunalicious,” and “Toramazing,” all featuring key algae ingredients, OLALA! plans to expand its product line soon.

“OLALA! is about taste in more than one way. It’s about the craft, creativity, and a mouth-watering sensation steaming on your plate. It’s understated confidence, verbally and visually; it’s what’s needed to make change happen.”

Carl Larsson, Creative Director & Partner at EVERLAND

You aren’t alone if you’ve ever responded with ‘huh?’ to someone speaking International Art English at you, or felt icky about the unspoken social capital at work at a gallery opening, or found yourself struggling to come up with the correct answer to ‘But, what do you see?’ when standing in front of a painting or sculpture.

The promise to confirm all my sneaking suspicions propelled me into the story. Many moments provide red meat for my inner judge, not least of which was Bosker’s hoop-jumping first assignment as a Brooklyn gallery assistant and her expectations around her first Art Basel Miami. But alongside this look at the art glitterati under a microscope is a softer, more personal story about a woman yearning to understand why art is so important. Why did Bosker’s grandmother teach art in a displaced persons camp in Austria after World War II? Why do world cultures honor art as essential as air, food, and shelter? Why do artists toil away in their studios for years in obscurity with little financial reward? When artists do ‘make’ it, why do they put up with the incredible heaps of bullshit from the art-capital machine?

This why is the essence of Bosker’s research in Get The Picture. I sat down with her to discuss the book, and we veered into art, writing, and life. Our interview is condensed for length and clarity.

Reading Get The Picture, I was struck by how untouchable and unknowable the art world is, and I couldn’t help but draw parallels to the publishing industry. As a writer, did your immersion change how you view your place in your industry and the process that writers go through? 

So much about the world is magnified by the art world: the way we judge quality, the extreme wealth disparities, and the power of gatekeepers.

I went into this process to develop me eye, to learn to see the world the way hyper-obsessed art fiends look at it. I wanted an answer to how a work of art goes from being the germ of an idea in someone’s studio to a masterpiece that we ooh and ahh over in a museum? I learn by doing, and so my way of learning was to throw myself in, to insert myself into the nerve center of the art world. It’s very different to listen to someone describe how they sell an artwork from schmoozing with billionaires for a week at an art fair and selling a $9000 photograph in the backseat of an Uber while people are doing cocaine around you.

Observing all the power plays behind the scenes, I couldn’t help but reflect on my own industry.

I learned that all the decisions that shape an artwork are all the decisions that shape us: what we define as art, who can make art, and why should we bother to engage with it? Throughout this process, my relationship with art changed but my relationship with everything else changed as well. 

I hope that Get The Picture empowers people to develop their eye and trust themselves. And if we do that, then that has implications far beyond the art world. My hope is that people reading this book, whether they are in finance, or publishing, or simply developing a new recipe, is that it will spark them to think more expansively, but also to think more for themselves.

You mentioned it just now: the question of, well, “What is art?” Someone has to define it, right? 

The intimidation we feel is not an accident. I got an intimate look at how the art world wields strategic snobbery to build mystique and keep people out. Based on what the art world advertises about itself, I expected to find this group of open-minded iconoclasts who wanted to share the magic of art with as many people as possible. But I encountered the clubby elitism that I associate with stodgy country clubs. Case in point: I worked for someone who encouraged me to get a makeover, rethink how I spoke and dressed, and rethink my “overly enthusiastic” personality. He wanted me to address what he saw as my fatal uncoolness. But you can also see this in how galleries hide themselves on the second floor of nondescript buildings. The way that art aficionados use this unnecessarily complex, made-up language of art speak. The way that gallery professionals judge you even more than you judge the work. All of this contributes to this deliberate gatekeeping.

Through tracing the history of the museum, I was surprised that these seemingly “public” institutions have historically had mixed feelings about letting in the general public. Deliberately or accidentally, the art world erects these barriers to preserve power in the hands of gatekeepers, to preserve the mystique, and to preserve it as the playground of an anointed few. Getting to see all of this helped me feel validated. The art world is doing anything but rolling out the welcome mat for the “Schmoletariat.”*

[*Joe Schmoes, aka Schmoes, is the term for the rest of us. Bosker first learned this term from the same gallerist who had suggested a makeover.]

We’ve been told for the last 100 years that everything that matters about a work of art is THE IDEA. This outsized importance on context has effectively put up a barrier to anyone engaging with works of art. Gallerists I met offered data points, often “a cloud of names,” such as where an artist went to school, the social capital of the artist, who their friends are, and even who the artist has slept with.

Being a museum guard at the Guggenheim made me rethink my relationship with art history and museums. I’d always thought of them as these unimpeachable custodians of the best culture had to offer, and working in galleries and museums shook my faith in that idea. You come to understand that that piece over there is only in the show because one person or collector forced it to go in. Or that a curator took a rich person by the elbow through an art fair and then said collector bought two copies of a piece and sent one to the museum collection. What we see in these hallowed halls of culture is not necessarily the “best” but the result of a series of decisions by flawed individuals who are all like us – read subjective. 

Ultimately, when you see what’s at play, it loses a little bit of its power. Everything you need to have a meaningful relationship with art is right in front of you.

My hope is that people reading this book, whether they are in finance, or publishing, or simply developing a new recipe, is that it will spark them to think more expansively, but also to think more for themselves.

Bianca Bosker

How did this experience change the way you engage with art?

As I worked with Julie Curtiss in her studio, I realized that an idea is not a painting. Making art is practically athletic. It is a bloody business; you must wrestle with the laws of gravity. Following an artist’s decisions offers us a path into the piece. 

One artist encouraged me to notice five things about an artwork. They don’t need to be big. It could be as simple as “I wish I could lick that green” or “that corner of the canvas seems unfinished.” This process also lends itself to slowing down and ignoring the wall text. 

Art is a practice for appreciating life, but art is also a practice for creating a life worth appreciating. Art teaches me to open myself up to the beauty and surprise of everyday life.

We can have that experience of art where our mind jumps the curb.

Bianca Bosker

I loved your relationship with Julie (Curtiss). You describe her expansive mindset; her apartment full of her artwork, other artists’ work, and stuff she’s found along the side of the road and elevated as ‘sculpture.’ Can you talk about what you got from working with Julie in her studio?

Julie changed my life. One thing I appreciated about her was that she taught me how to look at the world with an art mindset. When you do that, the world opens itself up to you. 

I’d always thought of art as a luxury. Yet artists behave as if art is something absolutely essential. But, I was surprised to find that scientists were right there with them, calling it a fundamental part of our humanity. As one biologist said, “as necessary as food or sex.” One scientific idea that intrigued me was that “art can help us fight the reducing tendencies of our minds.” Vision is a hallucination. Our eyes are different, and the data we take in is paltry. Our brains proactively compress, filter, and dismiss the data before we get the whole picture. Art helps us lift our filters of expectation, allowing us to take in the full nuance and chaos of the world around us.

Lifting this filter, like Julie, exposes us to a great nuance of experience, but we can also see art where we never did before. And we can have that experience of art where our mind jumps the curb. 

Let’s spend less time looking at so-called masterpieces and more time looking at underappreciated art that surprises us. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to fix all the flaws in the machine, but we can begin to build a better art world by broadening our horizons about what we choose to go and look at.

Julie taught me that art can emerge when we slow down, when we question, when we lift our filter of expectation, and when we look at something and wonder about it.

Beauty is a moment that nudges us to wonder about the world and our place in it.

Bianca Bosker

How did your relationship with color change? It blew me away when you talked about your experience at the Visual Science of Art Conference in Belgium. 

So much of what we understand of vision science was discovered by artists before scientists discovered it. These historical divisions are more flexible than we currently think.

Vision has always been celebrated as the most trustworthy of the senses. We’re told that good data comes from our eyes. I was shocked to learn that vision is a hallucination. I didn’t realize how slippery color is—it’s befuddling but also a gift. I became enchanted with color and by this concept of color constancy. Color is a great place to feel your filter of expectation at work. 

My love affair with color has only intensified. I’ve started wearing more color. Color spotting has become a hobby. The other day, I was on the subway, and rather than pull out my phone, I watched the ticklish orange of the seats, and it was a delight. It was like eating a delicious snack. I’d never thought of color having that hedonistic dimension, but it does. My two-year-old son is currently learning colors, and I think I’m confusing him. I can’t unsee the variety in colors that might live in the middle. While he sees blue, I see more green. But I’m not going to correct him. When it comes to color constancy, who actually knows what color it is? This knowledge has given me some humility.

So, what did you learn from AllFIRE (the performance artist who sat on your face)? The thought of it scandalized me. At the same time, if art is supposed to get us slightly off-balance and spark questions about our thinking, our biases, and our outmoded ways of thought, then, by that token, AllFIRE is art on steroids. I appreciated the internal conversation you invited readers to have with themselves.

Art doesn’t have to be a physical object. It can be a behavior. Art is a handshake between the viewer and the creator. 

The night in question, I did not leave my house that evening expecting to be sat on by a nearly naked stranger. Weirdly, my mind went to my fictional future political career, and I felt nervous and concerned. To my surprise, I was very much at peace once she was on my face. Afterward, I felt intensely conflicted and intrigued. As I engaged deeper with her work, it took me to an interesting place. Her work hits at the definition of art. It taught me to look for art in places I didn’t expect to see it and helped me see it in places I didn’t anticipate. Everyone can have an opinion about AllFIRE’s work (not just in the art world). It’s accessible. Her work caused me to think so deeply in ways that many abstract sculptures or more obvious art forms did not. Her work is not uncontroversial. It’s not easy. And it’s not for everyone. But, I hope that people go through this journey with me from thinking it’s absurd and, by the end, happy that she helped you consider these questions. That’s a gift that can knock our brains off their well-worn pathways and let the universe jostle our souls.

At the beginning of the book, you fondly mention your grandmother’s watercolor of carrots. Do you have a different relationship with her carrots after going through this experience?

For me, it brings up our relationship with beauty. Beauty has become a dirty word—in the art world, in elite society. There’s an idea that beauty is corrupted, frivolous, and a waste of time. That it’s old-fashioned. I came to feel differently about beauty. It’s essential. It’s not something that can be found in a color, a shape, or morality. Beauty is a moment that nudges us to wonder about the world and our place in it. Beauty is something that pulls us close and pulls us deeper into life. 

With that, there’s a value in challenging our idea of beauty. One of art’s gifts is the ability to stretch our ability to see beauty in places we never thought to look. 

Regarding my grandmother, I wonder how she’d answer these questions for herself if she were alive. The way she turned to art when the world was turning itself inside out speaks to the primacy of art in our lives.

We must create space in the global conversation about design and visual culture for these important perspectives.

Are we missing a title you’d recommend? Have a suggestion? Let us know.

*My criteria for choosing my top African American Designers were simple: a) I must love their work, and b) they must be older than I (born in 1966).

I do not intentionally exclude well-deserved and talented younglings. But I wrote this article as a call back to my younger self, to recognize that the path before me was designed Black and beautiful.

Now, read on and shine on.

Charles Dawson (1889 – 1981)

Best known for his illustrated advertisements, Charles Dawson (Charles Clarence Dawson) was an influential Chicago designer and artist through the 1920s and 30s.

He was born in 1898 in Georgia and went on to attend Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute. After two years, he left when he became the first African American admitted into the Arts Students League of New York. Dawson abandoned the pervasive racism of the league when he gained acceptance to the Art Institute of Chicago, where, in his own words, their attitude was “entirely free of bias.” During his time there, Dawson was heavily involved and went on to become a founding member of the first Black artists collective in Chicago, The Arts & Letters Collective.

After graduation, he went on to serve in the segregated forces of WWI, where he faced combat in France. He returned to find a changed Chicago: one racially charged due to a slowed economy and trouble finding jobs. In 1922, Dawson began freelancing, producing work for other black entrepreneurs. Five years later, Dawson played a major role in the first exhibition of African American art at his alma mater called Negro In Art Week.

Dawson took part in two different Works Progress Administration programs under Roosevelt’s New Deal, including the National Youth Administration, where he designed the layout for the American Negro Exposition, a piece composed of 20 dioramas showcasing African American history.

He eventually returned to Tuskegee, where he became a curator for the institute’s museum and passed away at the ripe old age of 93 in Pennsylvania. Dawson will always be remembered for his great contributions to African American art, design, and advancement.

Aaron Douglas (1899 – 1979)

Known as a key artist in the Harlem Renaissance, Aaron Douglas was a pivotal figure in developing a distinctly African style of art through his blending of Art Deco and Art Nouveau styles with connections to African masks and dances. His illustrations, published in Alan Locke’s anthology, The New Negro Movement, showcased his detachment from European-style arts and evolution into his own style, clearly communicating African heritage.

Douglas graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1922 with a BFA. He then taught high school art before moving to New York two years later to study under German artist Winold Reiss.

He became the most sought-after illustrator for black writers of his time after his covers for Opportunity and The Crisis, dubbed “Afro-Cubanism” by leading art critic Richard Powell. Among his other notable covers and illustrations are his designs for Carl Van Vechten’s Nigger Heaven and God’s Trombone, James Weldon Johnson’s epic poem.

Douglas was well-versed in Harlem nightlife, where he spent many nights gaining inspiration for his designs and depictions of the black urban scene. His murals, adorning the walls of various institutions, cemented his name as a major artist of the Harlem Renaissance. His best-known work is a series of murals called, Aspects of Negro Life, which Douglas created for the 135th St. branch of the New York Public Library.

He later left New York to become chair of the art department of Fisk University in Nashville, where he resided until his death in 1979.

Leroy Winbush (1915 – 2007)

One week after graduating high school, Winbush left Detroit for Chicago to become a graphic designer. His inspiration and mentors at the time were sign designers on Chicago’s South Side. He began creating signage, flyers, and murals for the Regal Theater, where he rubbed elbows with some of the most famous black musicians of the time.

Winbush then went on to join Goldblatt Department Store’s sign department, where he was the only black employee. In 1945, after years of working for others, Winbush started his own company, Winbush Associates, later Winbush Designs. Here, he landed accounts with various publishing houses, doing layouts for Ebony and Jet, among others. His ambition and charisma eventually helped him gain acceptance as a black designer and entrepreneur.

Later in life, Winbush began teaching visual communications and typography at various Chicago universities. He concurrently mastered the art of scuba diving, a feat that helped him land a position as part of the crew tasked with creating Epcot Center’s coral reef.

Winbush was adamant in his desire to be remembered as a “good designer,” as opposed to a “Black designer,” but was well aware of the influence he could have on the progression of the Black community. He designed a sickle cell anemia exhibit and exhibitions of the Underground Railroad for different Chicago museums to illuminate Black history, past and present, to the public. His accomplishments throughout his lifetime make LeRoy Winbush a notable African American graphic designer worth checking out.

Eugene Winslow (1919 – 2001)

Born in Dayton, Ohio, into a family of seven children, Eugene Winslow’s parents stressed the importance of education and encouraged their children to study the arts. Winslow attended Dillard University, receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He then served in WWII as part of the revered Tuskegee Airmen.

After the war, Winslow nurtured his lifelong artistic interest by attending The Art Institute of Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology. Winslow then went on to co-found the Am-Afro Publishing house based out of Chicago, where in 1963, they published Great American Negroes Past and Present with Winslow’s illustrations. That same year, he also designed the seal commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation for the Chicago Exposition. Throughout his career as an artist, designer, businessman, and entrepreneur, Winslow always sought to promote racial integration wherever possible.

Georg Olden (1920 – 1975)

Born in 1920 in Birmingham, Alabama, to the son of an escaped enslaved person and opera-singing mother, Georg Olden was a revolutionary designer who helped pave the way for African Americans in the field of design and the corporate world.

After a brief stint at Virginia State College, Olden dropped out of school to work as a graphic designer for the CIA’s predecessor, The Office of Strategic Services. From there, the connections he made helped him land a position at CBS in 1945 as Head of Network Division of On-Air Promotions. Here, he worked on programs such as Gunsmoke, and I Love Lucy and eventually went on to help create the vote-tallying scoreboard for the first televised Presidential Election in 1952.

Praised in his day and posthumously, Olden appeared multiple times in publications such as Graphis and Ebony. In 1963, he became the first African American to design a postage stamp. His design showcased chains breaking to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. By 1970, he had won seven Clio Awards for creative excellence in advertising and design and eventually won the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) award in 2007. Celebrated for his talent, charm, and business intelligence, Olden was a revolutionary African American graphic designer who made advancements in the industry and for all African Americans.

Thomas Miller (1920 – 2012)

Born in Bristol, Virginia, the grandson of enslaved people, Thomas Miller’s talent, hard work, and ambition helped him become one of the first Black designers to break into mainstream graphic design.

Miller graduated and earned a Bachelor of Education with a focus on the arts in 1941 from Virginia State College. Soon after, he enlisted in the army and served in WWII, achieving the rank of First Sergeant.

After the war, Miller was determined to learn about commercial design. He gained acceptance to The Ray Vogue School of Art in Chicago, where he and fellow student Emmett McBain were the only African Americans besides the janitors.

After graduation, Miller searched for jobs and denied one offer in New York because he worked “behind the screen.” Unwilling to tolerate the company’s overt racism, Miller passed on the offer and eventually joined the progressive Chicago studio Morton Goldsholl Associates. It was here that Miller, as chief designer, worked on high-profile campaigns such as the design for 7-Up in the 1970s. As a supporting member of the design team, he also worked on the Motorola rebranding, the Peace Corps logo, and the Betty Crocker “Chicken Helper” branding, earning accolades for himself and the company.

Miller also freelanced, starting when he served in WWII and continuing through his work with Goldsholl. Through his independent work, Miller was commissioned to create a memorial to the DuSable Museum’s founders. This job resulted in one of his most well-known pieces, the Thomas Miller Mosaics, now featured in the museum’s lobby.

Miller’s hard work, dedication, and artistic talent helped him pave the way for many African-American artists and designers to come.

Emmett McBain (1935 – 2012)

Emmett McBain, born in Chicago in 1935, is lesser known than some other designers I’ve profiled. But McBain made major contributions to the advertising and design world and for all African Americans through his successes in the business world.

Emmett McBain, a true visual thinker and communicator, attended The American Academy of Art and the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he became a talented watercolor artist. Post-graduation, McBain worked for several notable agencies and firms as a designer, art supervisor, and creative consultant before co-founding Burrell McBain Incorporated. This advertising agency, which later became the largest African-American-owned agency in the States, aimed to serve their accounts while gaining the trust and loyalty of the Black community. McBain was key in running the agency, landing valuable accounts, and constantly developing new and fresh ideas. His former partner, Thomas J. Burrell, praised his leadership skills and ability to think outside the box.

McBain left Burrell McBain in 1974 to focus on independent art and design in his Hyde Park, Chicago neighborhood, where he later passed away in 2012 at 78.

The University of Illinois at Chicago has a collection featuring his works entitled Emmett McBain Design Papers. You’ll find print ads, record album covers, and transparencies of Billboards, all McBain designed.

Archie Boston (born 1943)

Known for his blatant self-deprecation and humor, Archie Boston was a pioneer in challenging the racism of the 1960s and 70s through his designs and attitude.

One of five children, Boston grew up poor but well aware of the importance of education. In 1961, his artistic talent landed him acceptance to Chouinard Art Institute. While at university, he interned with the advertising agency Carson/Roberts, where he cemented his desire to work in design and eventually returned to the agency years later.

After graduation, he worked at various advertising and design firms before forming Boston & Boston with his older brother, Bradford. It was here that they created provocative pieces showcasing their race, as well as creativity, in pieces such as “Catch a Nigger by The Toe” and by selecting the Jim Crow typeface for their logotype.

For the majority of his career, however, Boston was an educator. He landed a position as a full-time lecturer in the art department at California State University, Long Beach, before creating their design department and eventually becoming head of the visual communications design program. He influenced countless young designers there, inspiring them through his encouragement and standard for excellence.

Emory Douglas (Born 1943)

The former Revolutionary Artist and Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party, Emory Douglas’ career in commercial art has been centered around civil and equal rights propagation from its beginnings.

Douglas’ first exposure to design came when his crimes landed him in the Youth Training School of Ontario, California. Here, he worked in the print shop and learned about typography, illustration, and logo design. Later, Douglas enrolled in commercial art classes at the City College of San Francisco after running into a former counselor from the center who encouraged him to do so

During this time, Douglas became active in the Black Panther Party after being introduced to the founding members, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Douglas offered up his design skills while watching Seale work on the first issue of the party’s paper, The Black Panther. He was well aware of the importance of having illustrations and artwork to help reach the many illiterate members of the communities the party was targeting. Much of his art and illustration for the paper initially focused on Black rights, but it soon expanded to include women, children, and community figures alongside the party’s focuses. While working on The Black Panther, Douglas coined and popularized the term “pigs” in reference to police officers.

In the 1980s, the Black Panther Party, as Douglas had once known it, was mostly dissolved by law enforcement efforts. Later, Douglas moved to care for his ailing mother and continued to pursue some independent design. His revolutionary artwork helped to educate and agitate repressed and suppressed communities of the time.

Sylvia Harris (1953 – 2011)

Noted for her unwavering desire to help others, Sylvia Harris was a graphic designer, teacher, and business owner who used her research and skill set to reach far and wide.

Born and raised in Richmond, VA, Harris experienced the desegregation of the 1960s directly. This experience provided the foundation for her interest in social systems and their effect. After receiving her BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, Harris moved to Boston, where she worked with various creative types. Through her work with WGBH and Chris Pullman, she realized the design field’s breadth and depth. After much prodding from her mentor, Harris enrolled in Yale’s Masters in Graphic Design program.

Two Twelve Associates was created with two of her former classmates in 1980 after graduation. Here, Harris began to explore how to use and grow her skill set to develop large-scale public information systems. Her work with Citibank set an early precedent for human-centered automated customer service.

In 1994, Harris left Two Twelve to create Sylvia Harris LLC, where she changed gears and began focusing more on design planning and strategies. Harris helped guide some of the largest public institutions, hospitals, and universities with systems planning. As creative director for the US Census Bureau’s Census 2000, Harris’ rebranding efforts helped encourage previously underrepresented citizens to participate.

Harris was awarded the AIGA medal posthumously in 2014, three years after her untimely death at the age of 57. Harris will always be remembered for her contributions to the design field and far beyond.

Art Sims (Born 1954)

From his first foray into the art world with the “Draw Me” test from magazines and TV of the 50s and 60s, Sims excelled. He attended Detroit’s Cass Technical High School, known for its dedication to the arts. From there, Sims gained acceptance to the University of Michigan on a full scholarship. During the summer between his junior and senior years, Sims landed a job with Columbia Records to produce a series of album covers. After graduation, the Sunshine State called his name, and Sims headed to LA.

Sims scored a job with EMI, but he was ultimately let go for pursuing freelance work. He went on to work for CBS, where he continued building his independent portfolio. When he was let go this time, Sims was prepared and already had the office space for his firm, 11:24 Advertising Design.

After seeing one of Spike Lee’s films, Sims knew he had to work with the director. He went on to design posters for Lee’s New Jack City, Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, and most controversially, Bamboozled.

Ever the entrepreneur, Sims is developing a greeting card line and writing screenplays while teaching graphic design to African American middle schoolers. Art Sims is the epitome of talent, drive, and ambition, someone every graphic designer should know.

Gail Anderson (Born 1962)

Known for her uncanny ability to create expressive, dynamic typefaces perfectly suited to their subject, Gail Anderson is a designer and teacher with an impressive tenure in the field.

Born and raised in New York, Anderson’s ever-burning curiosity about design began with the teen magazines of her adolescent years. It was cemented while studying at the School of Visual Arts in NY. Here, Anderson began to develop her methodologies and no-holds-barred approach to design.

After college, Anderson eventually landed at The Boston Globe for two years, working with those responsible for pioneering the new newspaper design of the late 1980s. Moving on to Rolling Stone in 1987, Anderson worked seamlessly with AIGA medalist Fred Woodward, where their creative process always included lots of music, low lighting, and late nights. Her work with Woodward was always exploring new and exciting materials and instruments to create Rolling Stone’s eclectic design. They utilized everything from hot metal to bits of twigs to bottle caps to create their vision.

After working her way up from associate to senior art director, Anderson left Rolling Stone in 2002 to join SpotCo, where her focus shifted from design to advertising. At SpotCo, she’s been the designer behind innumerable Broadway and off-Broadway posters, including that of Avenue Q and Eve Ensler’s The Good Body.

Praised as the quintessential collaborator for her inclusive, expressive, and encouraging attitude towards working together, Anderson also admits that many of her “high-octane” designs occurred at night, solo. Whether it’s her collaborative work, solo projects, magazine layouts, or theatrical posters, Anderson designs work with and for her subjects, always emphasizing their highest potential.

The Unknown & Overlooked Designers

They are many, often invisible, but we feel the impact of their work throughout history, and we should acknowledge them. Many African American graphic designers worked behind the scenes and did not receive credit for their work due to the racist norms of the times. 

These include:

• The logo creators for the uniforms of the Negro baseball and basketball leagues;
• Trail-blazing entrepreneurs like Madam C.J. Walker, Annie Malone, Carmen C. Murphy, Mae Reeves, Anthony Overton, Frederick Patterson, and many more;
• The unknown graphic designer who painted the bold and sobering “A MAN WAS LYNCHED YESTERDAY” flag, hung by the NAACP from their New York offices whenever they learned of a hanging;
• Those presently active (Black Lives Matter) are creating banners, posters, signs, and media protesting discrimination of all kinds. Graphic design, after all, is about communicating a message effectively.

The truth of all history cannot be understated. As a designer of the African diaspora (African-Jamaican-Canadian), I believe in knowing those who paved the way. These men and women boldly pushed past racial inequality with their talent and perseverance to help create the way for all.

Glenford Laughton is founder of Toronto-based agency Laughton Creatves, a design studio that believes design is a highly-collaborative endeavor (hence the missing ‘i’). This article was written and researched by Glenford Laughton and originally published on the Laughton Creatves website. Republished with permission of the author.

Sources: AIGA, The Design Observer, The University of Chicago Library, Atlanta Blackstar, The History Makers, Wikipedia, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Design Archive, and The Root.

Kate Humphreys, a vintage children’s bookseller, has tapped into the inimitable magic of illustrated stories from a bygone era with her online shop, Oly Oly Oxen Free Books. The Nebraska-based Humphreys admits she has a bit of an obsession with vintage children’s books. “I love finding beautiful stories and sharing them with as many people as I can,” she writes on her Etsy shop. Humphreys also uses her delightful Instagram account as a sales channel for her books and to spread her love and appreciation for these classic, illustrated artifacts. She shares a careful curation of book covers, page spreads, and preciously drawn moments from her collection on the daily, amassing a lively community of followers who gush with glee on every post.

I contacted Humphreys to hear more about her vintage children’s book obsession and to get her expert opinion on why these books have such staying power in our souls. Her thoughtful responses are below!

(Interview edited for clarity and length.)

How did you first get into selling old children’s books?

The simple answer is that I had been collecting them for a number of years and started accumulating too many! I also had a hard time not purchasing good kids’ books at the thrift store, even if I already owned them. A friend suggested I open an Etsy store, and things went from there.

The more in-depth answer is that owning a children’s book store has been a fantasy dream job since I was a kid, like owning a candy shop or riding elephants in the circus. Something that your kid mind thinks is possible but your adult mind can’t come to terms with. I decided to ditch the rational adult thoughts and sell beautiful books with pictures.

I decided to ditch the rational adult thoughts and sell beautiful books with pictures in them.

What is it about children’s books that you find so obsession-worthy?

The picture book is the most underrated art form there is! Utilizing words and images to tell an engaging story to young people is no easy feat, and to own these small works of art by people who have indeed mastered that ability is magical. It’s the most affordable art one can own! Imagine if Picasso decided to make a children’s book; it would likely be no more expensive than one about burping dinosaurs!

Because of their brevity and the tendency for kids’ books to teach morality, the well-done ones are often wise and poetic. A story told simply is not always a simple story. A good children’s book embraces playfulness, and I believe play is an essential part of living a life of joy.

A good children’s book embraces playfulness, and I believe play is an essential part of living a life of joy.

What’s your process for choosing the books you sell and the illustrations you post on your Instagram?

I wish I could give you a secret formula, but I’m just buying what I like! That’s my only rule. I have to buy things I like. Sometimes I’ll find kids’ books that are probably worth something, but I don’t really feel drawn to them, so I don’t buy them.

As far as the illustrations I post on Instagram, I have to find images that work well in a small square. Lots of times, a book is remarkable but doesn’t have the perfect square image for the feed. Also, I’m usually looking for a picture that tells a story in and of itself.

What is it about vintage illustration aesthetics that makes them so captivating?

There is something about the analog nature of older printing techniques that imbues warmth! The fact that you can see where the color goes outside the line or imperfect inking draws you closer to the moment of creation. Also, making a children’s book took longer, and I think that extra time and consideration made for a better product. We all know that aesthetically speaking, something astounding happened in the 60s and 70s, that I won’t even attempt to explain.

Children’s media is so intimately tied to our upbringing, it’s impossible to separate the two. The book comes to represent a time and place and a moment, which is truly powerful! 

Nostalgia is a powerful thing. How do you see nostalgia at play in how people respond to your shop?

I didn’t consider the nostalgia element when I started my book account, but it’s certainly what brings many people to the page. I get so many questions about long-forgotten children’s books that I wish I could unearth them for people. Children’s media is so intimately tied to our upbringing that it’s impossible to separate the two. The book comes to represent a time, a place, and a moment, which is truly powerful!

Do you have a favorite children’s book from your childhood that was particularly formative for you?

Doctor DeSoto by William Steig was a particularly big book in my household.

There is a moment in the book when the fox, who is having his teeth worked on, has his mouth glued shut and tries to speak to his mouse dentist. My mom really delivered the fox’s line, “Fank oo berry mush” with such panache. It’s a tremendous memory.

Images courtesy Kate Humphreys.

Traditionally filled with money and given as tokens of good wishes, red packets are integral to Chinese New Year celebrations. The Year of the Dragon holds special significance, symbolizing success, honor, and dignity — believed to bring growth, progress, and abundance.

The Secret Little Agency created the Long Bao to celebrate this auspicious year. A play on words, the name is derived from the pronunciation of the Chinese character for dragon, which is ‘lóng’ or ‘loong.’

This dragon year, we decided to extend the red packet and make it long-er.

The Secret Little Agency

Nodding to a rich tradition, The Long Bao also serves up some humor and a contemporary aesthetic, making the symbol of good fortune a unique gift.

This limited edition creation captures the Chinese New Year’s essence and exemplifies The Secret Little Agency’s commitment to creativity and innovation. Founded in 2009, The Secret Little Agency remains the only creative agency in Singapore to be named both Independent and Creative Agency of the Year multiple times in the last decade.

With only 1000 pieces available in this exclusive run, the agency plans to distribute them to friends and partners in Singapore and worldwide. Intrigued? Request your own Long Bao with an email to The Secret Little Agency.

Invariably, many healthcare brands opt for safe, uninspired creative (think upbeat or defiant people of a certain age at a farmer’s market or a yoga class). But why should the healthcare sector, with its profound impact on our everyday health and well-being, settle for anything less than beautiful, ground-breaking design that has the potential to make a meaningful and measurable impact?

Central to the issue: the perception that legal and regulatory boundaries stifle creativity. This fear of taking informed risks restrains creative leaders and clients, leading to repetitive, homogeneous branding and campaigns. How frequently do we encounter functional yet bland pharmaceutical brands or clichéd depictions such as lifestyle campaigns of smiling couples on a beach or families playing sports in the park to advertise medication?

The conventional approach may drive sales but lacks originality and fails to forge a lasting, trusted connection between the consumer and the brand. We can and should be doing better. Effective communication through thoughtful, human-centric design demands a unique and uncharted approach to creative challenges.

Constraints As Catalysts For Creativity

Our creative organizations are responsible for cutting through and redefining the space in which we communicate on behalf of our clients. Rather than seeing these legal and regulatory constraints as limiting, we should ask: How can we embrace them? What possibilities do they present?

Embracing the space within the constraints is a possibilities mindset rather than a prohibitory one. It means seeing guidelines as a prompt for unconventional thinking and unparalleled creativity.

An example of this that stands the test of time is the original Zoloft campaign. Existing within rigid constraints didn’t stop the creative team from creating work that was (and is) differentiated, powerful, simple, beautiful, and resonant. They used straightforward, playful animation to explain what Zoloft did in the brain rather than just focusing on the generic outcomes for patients. This campaign broke through at a time when mental health communications were a clutter of safe, repetitive, and easily ‘approvable’ work. In a sea of trite sameness, Zoloft came along and explained the solution, respecting the viewers’ intelligence. Ultimately, working within legal constraints should always be seen as our opportunity to find new and innovative ways of creating work that is both memorable and effective.

Be Fearless, But Know The Boundaries

A profound understanding of regulations and constraints is the first step to cultivating genuine ground-breaking creativity.

How far we can push creatively varies from client to client. But first, we must show that we have a proper understanding of where the hard and fast boundaries are and that we understand their purpose.

How can we embrace the constraints? What possibilities do the boundaries present?

Society of Valued Minds: Authenticity Breeds Connection

In today’s content-saturated environment, authenticity is more important than ever in building connections and trust. Amid the proliferation of content, misinformation looms large, and authenticity is instrumental in genuinely connecting with your audience. It is mission-critical to cultivate an understanding of “the science behind the sell.” Yes, the science! Your audience wants to know more and are perfectly capable of understanding more.

When working on the Society of Valued Minds, a social media initiative committed to helping destigmatize the conversation around mental illness, our boundary was that we couldn’t mention any therapeutic or drug treatments. So, our challenge became: how do we find ways of helping people and offering support without explicitly pointing to any specific treatment?

We needed a genuine way to transcend the boundary while respecting our audience.

To do that, we allowed the people who were part of our campaign to tell their stories, creating a micro-influencer-led community. This approach with real people created an openness and the space for conversation that ultimately helped make mental illness support feel uncomplicated and accessible. We combined their stories with playful typography, bold color, and eye-catching animations, creating an approachable design system that was relevant and engaging for our specific audience.

Pushing for that authentic conversation with an audience based on real experiences helps people connect to a brand and each other through emotional resonance and authenticity. It shows that the healthcare industry’s constraints should be the exact thing that motivates creative innovation, allowing creatives to craft supremely designed campaigns that resonate and revolutionize.

This guest post was written by Gino Carolini, creative director at healthcare creative agency minds + assembly. He has over two decades of experience shaping and crafting 360º brand stories and experiences for a wide range of clients. Having spent most of his career in general consumer advertising, he joined healthcare with a diverse portfolio and category experience spanning cpg to luxury hospitality.

To maximize the impact of the new identity, Repslabel orchestrated a comprehensive campaign that works across various elements, including digital publications and promotions. The conceptual campaign pays homage to Baroque composers, utilizing graffiti to shroud their identities in secrecy, infusing Les Boréades with an enigmatic quality that focuses squarely on the music itself. This strategic approach enhances the ensemble’s artistic presence and showcases the adaptability and creativity embedded in their revitalized visual branding.

The newly crafted identity is flexible and designed to adapt seamlessly across various media over time. The typographic approach carries a distinct personality, communicating information with clarity and impact. The grid structure provides versatility, accommodating different visual and typographic elements based on the integrated content. A simple yet powerful color palette adds sophistication and allows for harmonization with diverse graphic styles.

Repslabel’s ‘Go for Baroque’ approach, combining contemporary graffiti in contrast with the highly ornate and elaborate style of Baroque, is music to my ears.

I took my first trip to Mexico at the end of last year, when my family and I went on a holiday vacation to the small coastal town of Sayulita. Roughly a 45-minute drive from the pulsing parties of Puerto Vallarta, Sayulita is a lesser-known Mexican gem along the western coast in the southern Nayarit region. Sought after primarily by wave-chasing surfers, Sayulita has a population of just about 5,000, though that number ebbs and flows in and out of the tourist season.

Upon arriving in Sayulita days before the new year, with my grandmother’s silver bracelets clanging around my wrists, I was immediately captivated by the small yet spirited fishing village.

Garlands of papel picado of all colors and designs were strung across each of Sayulita’s narrow, cobble-stoned streets. The papel picado motif, swaying softly in the wind with their thin plastic glinting in the sun, wove colorfully throughout the town, physically connecting each shop and restaurant with a celebratory flair.

Sayulita is saturated with bright colors, from the bold-hued stucco of buildings to the painted and mosaic-tiled murals peppering the walls, stairwells, and every other surface in between. As a sign painter myself infatuated by all things hand-painted, I moved through the town, taken by the signage and lettering clearly executed by a human with a paintbrush. I documented many of the hand-painted signs I encountered, like the facade of a custom boot shop and the enamel window sign adorning a golf cart rental service.

At the center of Sayulita sits a baseball field. Home of the Sayulita Jaibos (crabs), this field serves as an epicenter of commerce in the town, as merchants and vendors set up booths around the field’s perimeter each morning to sell their goods for the day. Beaded hummingbird ornaments, ceramic housewares, and embroidered tunics are among the merchants’ most popular items. As I made my laps around the field in search of the perfect trinket keepsakes, pawing through strands of beaded necklaces, haggling for a knock-off Lionel Messi jersey, accumulating abalone hair clips and other mementos, I started to recognize certain design elements and aesthetics I associated with my grandmother. The same penchant for jewel tones and beaded figurines I’d inherited from my mother, I was now tracing back to my grandmother and her time in Mexico.

There’s an abundance of tiles in Sayulita, with stairwells, sidewalks, and restaurant tables festooned with all sorts of these ceramic squares. I’ve been obsessed with tiles for as long as I can remember, and have the annoying habit of taking photos of any noteworthy tile specimen that crosses my path. I spent much of my exploration of Sayulita holding up my family as we walked to dinner or the beach, stopping dead in my tracks to capture the perfect angle of one of the many tiled staircases I came upon.

As a white American visiting Mexico with my white American family, I think it’s important to acknowledge my anxiety about the power dynamics we would inevitably bring with us during our stay. These sensitivities are inherent to traveling and the general concept of “going on vacation.” Maybe it was the baseball field in the center of town, or the local surfers scuttling around the streets barefoot with their boards held over their heads, or the squinty-eyed beach Chihuahua that befriended my dad at the water’s edge, but there was a refreshing integration of the tourists and the local Sayulita community that felt palpable to me. Of course, privilege imbalances will always be at play, and Sayulita is far from immune to that. Still, there was a sense of intimacy within the community we were visiting and a feeling of genuine welcoming from the town that I was grateful for throughout our visit.

As at the end of all great traveling experiences, I left Sayulita feeling as if I understood myself a little bit better. I was able to chart some of the origins of my interest in tiles, bougainvillea, and the color turquoise by spending a week in a little Mexican town that’s bustling with golf carts, fishermen, and sandy street dogs. I feel nostalgic for the trip already, missing the vibrant energy and aesthetic, the humble hum of the streets in the mornings, and the music spilling out from bars at night. Whenever I return from traveling, I question whether or not I imagined the whole thing; did I fabricate that place in my mind or create an alternate reality that I’ve suddenly snapped out of? The particular magic of Sayulita makes me even more dubious, but the newest treasures in my jewelry box give me hope.

Based in New York City and New Orleans, The Collected Works — lovingly referred to as TCW — stands out as an independent design studio dedicated to crafting dynamic identities. Despite its boutique studio setup, TCW prides itself on delivering outstanding results comparable to larger agencies. With a remarkable track record spanning over a decade, TCW continues to champion rad work for rad people.

See how their rad mantra came to life in crafting The North Face – 50 Years of Parkas campaign.  

We were thrilled to work with The North Face, developing a design system for their 50 Years of Parkas campaign. Through a limited-edition zine and lots of motion assets, we aimed to celebrate the parka – not just as a brilliant piece of technical gear for extreme conditions, but a cultural symbol that has resonated with the masses.

Justin Raymond Park, Project Manager, TCW

“​​The system we developed enabled us to integrate campaign photography and written interviews with some absolutely incredible people,” TCW’s Justin Raymond Park explained. “Conrad Anker and Jimmy Chin recount epic stories of mountaineering, Quannah Chasinghorse shares what The North Face has meant to her in her advocacy and sustainability work, and Danie Sierra speaks of the parka’s resonance in urban culture.”

We had the immense pleasure of laying out their words alongside beautiful photography, from the heights of the Rocky Mountains to the streets of New York.

Justin Raymond Park

Fun fact: TCW branded this year’s PRINT Awards, check it out!

The deadline to enter your work for the 2024 PRINT Awards is TODAY (January 15). Submit your work here!

Two key drivers stand out: necessity and opportunity.

Necessity often arises from mergers, leadership shifts, or public perception crises. Meanwhile, opportunity stems from growth projections, substantial shifts in products/services, or market-driven company restructuring. Whether by necessity or opportunity, here are some more reasons why a company might choose to rebrand:

1. To Adapt to a Dynamic World: Staying relevant and market-competitive by aligning with changing consumer needs.
2. To Reflect/Reinforce Values and Vision: It’s not just about a new look; rebrands reflect a company’s core values and vision for the future.
3. To Stay Technologically Relevant: Establishing a more robust digital presence and enhancing user experiences in an increasingly online world.
4. To Evolve with the Customer: Signals a commitment to growth and innovation, driving companies to meet changing customer demands.
5. To Reposition for the Future: Strategic repositioning allows companies to capture new markets and expand their global footprint for the future.

Here’s a roundup of companies that launched notable brands that piqued our interest in 2023.

US Army by Siegel+Gale

National Portrait Gallery by Edit Brand Studio & Peter Horridge

Jell-O by BrandOpus

Nokia by Lippincott

We also covered the controversy surrounding the Nokia logo refresh in our Type Tuesday column.

Burberry by Burberry

Reddit by Pentagram

Check out my interview with Pentagram’s Natasha Jen about the Reddit brand refresh.

Fanta by the Coca-Cola Company and Jones Knowles Ritchie

City of New York by Graham Clifford

PRINT also covered New Yorkers’ thoughts (well, tantrum) on the new logo.

“X” logo by Sawyer Merritt

Pepsi by PepsiCo

Read our coverage of the Pepsi rebrand.

Johnson & Johnson by Wolff Olins

Wolff Olins launched their own brand refresh in 2023, too.

MAX by DixonBaxi

This rebrand by London’s DixonBaxi, elicited some big feels from consumers. PRINT’s Chloe Gordon interviewed Sarah Ratinetz, creative director at Forsman & Bodenfors, touching on emotional attachments, if content is more important than design, and her sweet personal connection to HBO.

Eurostar by DesignStudio

Slurpee by Safari Sundays

The Year of the Rebrand isn’t just about a new look—it’s a bold statement of evolution, resilience, and a commitment to staying at the forefront of innovation. Which is your favorite?