Details from recent rebrand for engineering design practice Ritchie+Daffin. Bitum by Brownfox in used in Regular and Italic across all materials.

Photography by Thomas Adank.

Brand identity from graphic design studio Polytechnic for Anywhere Book Club which brings together an illustrated emblem and array of spot illustrations from Marcus Oakley with Formagari’s Malamocco used in two weights, along with Sebenta from Feliciano Type.

The Anywhere Book Club exists to reimagine how adults can support children’s reading and writing. You can read more about the initiative on their website.

Malamocco was chosen to pair with Marcus’ heavy and graphic linework as its forms have a similarly unkempt and powerful presence on the page. Crucially (for a project that is supporting reading and writing in young people) the lettering remaining highly recognisable, readable and clean yet manages to be highly animated and joyful in nature.

The investigation into how certain typography can pair with an illustrator’s work better than others has been an enduring passion of the studio.

Read more about the project on It’s Nice That.

Natalino is a classic menswear brand inspired by relaxed Italian tailoring with a focus on flattering cuts and authentic, quality materials.

The logo sought to evoke a timeless quality and elegance, with the near-monolinear letterforms drawn closely from a 1930s specimen of Henry Reinhard Möller’s design Maximum. We refined this to devise a carefully composed mark with strong presence when seem in stitching as well as large in metal.

Alongside this we worked with Lucas Descroix (Plain Form) to create a bespoke brand typeface Guido with a complimentary italic cut. The Regular weight was both a revival and contemporary expansion of the work of a Florentine stone-carver from 1860. The differing proportions of the upper- and lowercase allow for a high level of flexibility when typesetting brand communications. The boxy, structural letterforms are softened with gentle turns and details, such as the detached tail of the Q and the cross-bar of the lowercase t. The eccentricities of the numberset are informed by the stone carver’s decisions, whereas the whole lowercase and italic cut was created from scratch.

In the course of the project the client secured premises for their flagship store so we brought architects Mooradian Studio onto the project to develop the architectural expression of the brand.

Mooradian studio’s approach developed the clients focus on materials and sourcing. A recycled paper was sprayed over all the surfaces of the shop interior to bind together the disparate elements of the existing building. The texture, which brings an unexpected and pleasingly soft acoustic, echos the undyed wool of the Natalino jackets as well as the rough stone facade of Scarpa’s Olivetti shop which was an early reference.

Expanding on the understated elegance which Natalino’s ethos and the new visual identity embodied; Mooradian devised a curving sculptural rail that stands in the centre of the store. Drawing on industrial dry cleaning references as a solution to the density of the collection to be displayed – a narrow collection but wide range of fabrics – Mooradian Studio collaborated with metalwork design and fabrication studio Mitre & Mondays to create the aluminium elements that run throughout the store.

Polytechnic supported throughout the architectural development, with the architectural response in turn informing our decisions to cut the store signage from aluminium and bond this directly to the glass.

Architectural and print photography by Thomas Adank.

Designed in collaboration with the curator and writer Hollie Douglas who was the Curatorial Trainee at Towner Gallery working on the third and final year of Future Collect, iniva’s partnership project to transform the culture of commissioning and collecting within museums to better reflect the diversity of Britain.

The typefaces used in the publication are KTF Olivier (Kyiv Type Foundry), Telas (Seb McLauchlan/Counter Forms) and Parnaso Mono (Feliciano Type Foundry).

Through the design, layout and production of the publication we sought to explore notions of linear time and the effect certain interventions could have on the experience and atmosphere for reading Hollie’s essay — mapping the block in unusual ways across the spreads, warping repeats of imagery, experimenting with white ink onto silver paperstocks and so on.

Hollie’s work is largely concerned with diversifying exhibitions and collections, and how curatorial processes and activism can change this by embedding narratives of overlooked artists into art history. She is currently the Curatorial Projects Coordinator at Towner Eastbourne and studying an MA in Material and Visual Culture at University College London.

Back in November 2023, Hollie gave a presentation at iniva, sharing her research on how imagination, dreaming, and memory can function as an expression of resistance and freedom. Since then, she has written an essay that combines conversations with artists, artworks she encountered, as well as theories of radical imagination and black utopias, in hopes of encouraging a different perspective on how we view time.

Slow Time was recently published and is available to pick up at the Stuart Hall Library.

Shelf photograph by Thomas Adank.

Polytechnic worked with charity Hospital Rooms to help celebrate their ambitious Springfield University Hospital project with more than 20 artworks commissioned to redefine the landscape of mental health facilities.

As a testament to the impact of art in mental health care, this publication documents the process of service user and staff collaboration and co-production, and celebrates the internationally acclaimed and diverse artists who have challenged convention and provoked a spirit of creative exploration within the hospital walls.

David Einwaller’s Flatspot is used throughout in two weights.

Participating artists Linda Bell, Hurvin Anderson, Jasmin Sehra, Michelle Williams Gamaker, Abbas Zahedi, Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq, Bindi Vora, Shepherd Manyika, Harold Offeh, Sutapa Biswas, Alvin Kofi, National Opera Studio, Yinka Ilori, Susie Hamilton, Jo Bruton, Libita Sibungu, Nina Royle, Richard Mark Rawlins and Ellie Tsatsou. ?

Artwork photography by Damian Griffiths
Publication photography by Thomas Adank

Here is a link to a recent article about the wider project.

Album artwork for a limited edition Speedometer LP released by library music label Abbey Road Masters.

Speedometer are a UK funk and soul band. The record marks 25 years of the band and features two sessions – Soul and Funk – recorded with an 8-piece live band in Studio Three, Abbey Road Studios.

The typeface used is Fakt Stencil, designed by Thomas Thiemich, in the Blond and Light weights.

The illustrations are formed from collages of photography from the sessions, using various analogue techniques and are drawn into with pencil.

Oscar Murillo’s essay Open to the Public? was published in August 2021 to coincide with the Artangel × Oscar Murillo exhibition Frequencies and a return to Murillo’s thinking around the role of governments in education. Open to the Public takes a critical view of the New Labour Government of 1997–2010’s policies on the arts – namely, the provision of generous funding for the ‘cultural industries’, with the simultaneous adoption of neoliberal strategies.

The fonts used for in book design are RV Shaddick and Mvsevm. Both were designed by Henrik Kubel of A2-TYPE, who kindly allowed Artangel to use them across the campaign that we devised for the Frequencies show.

Text by Oscar Murillo.

Signage scheme for a community centre in East London. The wordmark ’feldy and headlines are all set in our own interpretation of Ne-Po and paired with Feliciano Type’s Grotzec Condensed.

A commission to develop the visual identity and signage scheme for the new Aberfeldy community centre for Poplar HARCA. A unique, weatherproof and interchangeable signage system with raised matt lettering onto gloss-coated, folded metal panels.

The Museums for Climate Action publication and website gather together a range of thinking about how museums might address the challenges of a warming world.

Three fonts are used in combination across the project. Venus is used for headlines – in lowercase only, and in the bold condensed cut – Graphik for body copy, and Triptych Roman (with Italick) as an alternate contrasting editorial voice.

Divided into three sections – Rethink, Reimagine, and Mobilise – the website includes research material from the project team, a suite of concepts imagining possible museum futures in the climate change era, and key resources to inspire radical climate action in the sector and beyond.

The project began life as a design and ideas competition, launched on International Museum Day 2020. Responding to the two main pillars of climate action – mitigation and adaptation – the competition asked how museums could help society make the deep, transformative changes needed to achieve a net-zero or zero-carbon world.

The responses, which could address any aspect of museum design and activity, ranged from the fantastical to the highly practical. You can see a selection of these concepts in the Reimagine section of the website here.

New typographic installation featuring Riviera by Swiss Typefaces has been installed aiming at enriching the public realm through celebration of Tom Raworth.

The dynamic text-based installation commemorates local writer, printer and publisher Tom Raworth (1938–2017). One of 23 locally-led projects supported by Hackney Council’s innovative Hackney Central Impact and Ideas Fund, the installation provides a platform for writing in public space, inviting passersby to engage with Raworth’s experimental writing and typesetting.

Tom Raworth was influential in bringing the style of Black Mountain, New York School and Beat poets to British writing, and first began his serious engagement with writing, printing and publishing while living on Amhurst Road in Hackney in 1960. Author of over 60 books, he founded Matrix Press in 1961 – publishing the literary/art magazine Outburst – and Goliard Press in 1965.

Responding to Raworth’s writing and his work as a printer and publisher, Polytechic’s design echoes the manual process of typesetting metal or wood type for print, with more than 700 enamel screen-printed tiles allowing for the faithful reproduction of Raworth’s work.

Inspired by Chernaik, Herbert and Benson’s Poems on the Underground and Jenny Holzer’s word art, the installation will feature new writing from Raworth’s catalogue each month, sparking surprise and curiosity in the everyday journeys of local residents and passersby.

In line with Hackney Council’s efforts to invest in local businesses and support sustainable urban development, Polytechnic assembled a local team to collaborate on the project, working closely with design studio Mitre & Mondays and screen-printers Manson’s Press.

The project was made possible with the support of the Raworth family who granted permission for the installation to share Raworth’s work with a wider audience.

Embedded within the street-frontage of Bodney Road Studios, the installation is publicly accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and is located adjacent to Amhurst Road on Bodney Road, Hackney.

You can read more about the project on the dedicated project website.

Full project credits:
Concept, graphic design and web design by Polytechnic
3D design and fabrication by Mitre & Mondays
Printing by Manson’s Press
Photography by Thomas Adank

Swiss Typeface’s Riviera is used across all printed matter to promote and document Joe Gamble’s solo show — presented w/Gedney Common and held in 2021 at Bodney Road Studios. Riviera is used as the house typeface for all Bodney Road Studios events and on the website. From the publication text by Charlotte Flint:

Joe Gamble’s sublime landscapes are forged from a combination of preliminary drawings, past sketchbooks, photographs and memories. Frequently visiting the Llŷn Peninsula in Wales, Joe documents the surrounding landscape and uses these source materials as foundations for creating paintings that convey a sense of space and explore ‘how place might be captured, interpreted and then finally presented’. […]

Working predominantly with drawing and painting, Joe graduated from the Royal Drawing School in 2019; he lives and works in London.

Blueprints of Hope: Celebrating LGBTQ+ London was curated by collective Gedney Common in response to UCL Urban Laboratory research evidencing a drop of 58% in London’s LGBTQ+ venues between 2006 and 2017.

Bringing together the work of libraries, archives, community centres, activist groups and contemporary artists, the exhibition presents a snapshot of London’s vital queer cityscape, past and present, and illuminates its role in providing a social and cultural lifeline for queer communities. ?️‍?

Paraiso (in the Regular style) is used for the large exhibition titles set vertically on the columns, and for section titles in the four areas of the exhibition. There is a formality and a sense of grandeur to these very large and intensely-narrow slabbed letterforms when seen in the exhibition space. The individual letterforms hold space so happily that they comfortably stack.

The classical setting of the University building, with its columns, marble and stone is contrasted by the highly camp gold leaf pattern within the letterforms and across the interpretation panels – the gold echos the gilded signage elsewhere on campus but crucially for the context of the exhibition flips this association, bringing a sense of the domestic, and of the DIY to the design language.

The body copy is set in Petit Frère Narrow, using an array of the OpenType features within the typeface. Slabbed stylistic alternates for the I, J, i and j are favoured, as well as the flatter r and double-storey a. Together these alternates create more horizontal rhythm for its use in these extended text blocks. The floating uppercase Q alternate character of Petit Frère was also used throughout – a design of exquisite form and proportion.

Neue Helvetica was used for captioning within the space, and on marketing materials as this is the main UCL brand typeface.

Curated by Charlotte Flint and Ross Head
Design by Polytechnic with typefaces by Lucas Descroix (Plain Form)
Installation photography by Thomas Adank

Read more about UCL Urban Laboratory on the UCL website

A comprehensive brand identity for Forge, a new modular housing system developed to support independent living. The identity is heavily type-led, with an uplifting and energising colour palette.

The F letterform in the wordmark was adapted to optimise legibility at small sizes. An accompanying animated emblem incorporates the accessibility circle from Forge’s architectural plans and references the dynamic, modular nature of the design.

In line with Forge’s low-impact ethos, supporting print is specified on paper with 100% reclaimed fibre with a unique patination that offsets the vibrant blue edging with a warm, organic tone.

The project incorporated a logo type treatment and illustrated brand imagery, an interactive visual aid that can be assembled into a 3D scale model, brochure, website, and a brand suite of flexible templates to support social media and brand outreach.

Exploring traditional notions of portraiture through a contemporary lens, Looking at You (spring 2019) exhibited paintings by Rebecca Harper, Ross Head, Anna Ilsley, Igor Moritz and Janet Sainsbury. Curated by Charlotte Flint and produced by arts collective, Gedney Common, the show presented bodies shrouded in raucous colour, abstracted and amorphous, playful and life-like; celebrating the figure in a myriad of ways.

The type-led identity paired a highly elegant display cut of Leonardo Fascia by Quentin Schmerber with a light and spacious cut of Thomas Huot-Marchand’s chiseled Minérale. The oversized interplay between the alternating artist names and show titles formed a theme across event promotion, signage and printed information in the space, with an electric blue running as a visual thread throughout.

An odd trio on the mud: the unsinkable Dory uses lettering in Optima and Helvetica, combined with the Dell Quay logo based on Charade.

C.M.Eldershaw is a new sales and lettings agency offering a progressive, holistic approach to moving home or business. Polytechnic were commissioned to consult on creative strategy and design the brand identity, digital assets, website and printed matter.

The inclination for an uplifting and personal tone anchors the founder’s name in the identity and steps away from the anonymity of many existing estate agencies. There is a warmth in the curve to all of the Friz Quadrata letterforms. The specifically unusual glyphs such as the lower-case a, b, d, p and q with their open counters – and the many hooked serifs and swash-like uppercase letterforms, made this typeface highly recognisable and a strong choice for the logotype and headline face.

The characterful Agipo is used as the supporting typeface, with its splayed uppercase M and the round tittles. It echoes Friz just enough whilst clearly bringing a tidy secondary voice but with a strong contemporary voice.

The positive outlook and approach of the business is further reflected in a warm and energising colour palette. Colour foil used in combination with coloured papers makes for crisp communication, and a range of custom die-cut formats add interest to the printed matter.

Ekkist are a Passivhaus and WELL Standard™ accredited consultancy leading the movement in architecture designed for well-being. Seeking to sustainably deliver the next generation of building design, their services range from architectural blueprints for self-builders to strategic masterplanning.

Ekkist's new identity pairs a warm over-sized sans-serif logo type treatment with the analytical voices of light sans-serif and slab-serif typefaces to project a progressive, technical and design-led brand. In line with Ekkist’s environmental focus, stationary is specified on a paper stock produced with waste potato starch and is Green-e- and FSC-certified. The coarse texture is evocative of raw construction materials with an honest, tangible quality.

The studio worked across name consultancy, art direction, creative strategy and design; producing a visual identity and logo type treatment, bespoke illustration, website, stationary and promotional printed matter. The initial project has evolved into an ongoing collaboration.

Image bank photography by Spencer Wilton. Website built by Neal Fletcher.

Launching a new series of talks by the world’s leading architects, the Barbican and The Architecture Foundation commissioned Polytechnic to produce a visual identity for their joint initiative — Architecture on Stage.

Working with Architecture Curator, Daniela Puga and Architecture Foundation Director, Ellis Woodman, the identity reconciled the aesthetics of both institutions and foregrounded the programme of eminent speakers. A series of printed programmes referenced the works of Ian Hamilton Finlay and Concrete poetry, with the delicate and deliberate approach to the layout enabled by the sparse use of the display type Self Modern from Bretagne type foundry. This was paired with Commercial Type’s Marr Sans for the body copy.

For the promotional posters, this relationship was reversed – with Marr Sans being used as the lead font for the names of the speakers and the Text and Italic weights of Self Modern in use for the supporting information. Used in a large point size, Marr Sans lent understated visual interest to the speaker line-up with its unusual characters – such as the closed uppercase C and the playful tail to the Q .

For more information on the project please visit polytechnic.works.

Norman Foster speaking at Architecture on Stage in the Barbican Concert Hall

Weber Industries are a bespoke fabrication and design consultancy who work with architects, artists, designers and private clients. Their projects range from unique objects to architectural features and public artworks. Taking a collaborative approach to design and making, they work with their clients as partners, developing projects from concept to fabrication and installation. In collaboration with Benedict de Silva, we were commissioned to design a comprehensive visual identity system, website and brand printed collateral.

The project drew on the rich visual quality of the Weber Industries workshop, referencing the colour and typographic language of the machine interface and production. Christian Schwartz’s FF Bau typeface, a contemporary interpretation of a Grotesk used extensively at the Bauhaus, inherently summons the typographic language of industrial fabrication. It is used here in combination with Colophon’s characterful and warm monospaced typeface Space Mono, which chimes with the progressive and contemporary output of the workshop.

The logo exists in a variety of iterations employing an ever-changing effect. It references the abundance of materials and prolific sense of production experienced in the workshop space, whilst functioning as a memorable mark – remaining recognisable as a ‘W’ from Weber Industries. In a digital space the logos interact as short animations, while in the workshop static cling vinyl allows the signage configuration to be revised and moved into new formations at will.

The collaboration produced a dynamic visual identity executed across the website, studio signage, printed matter and branded workwear. A resourceful editorial image bank was further commissioned and art directed to document the studio for the website and future promotional use.

Photography by Owen Richards and website design with (and build by) Benedict de Silva.

Polytechnic worked alongside artist Tommy Butt to create the album artwork for this debut from The Norfolk Broads. Othmar Motter’s Motter Ombra display face amps up the nostalgia, and is paired with Colophon’s Basis Grotesque and Butt’s woodcuts.

A bit of background on The Norfolk Broads: They are a four-piece female ensemble who enjoy singing low-pitched folk songs about love, despair and dastardly boyfriends.

They bonded over maritime work songs and failed romances in the alto section of the Trad Academy Sea Shanty Choir, deciding to form a girl-group during a long car ride to Cornwall in 2014. Since then, they have performed their spirited harmonies at festivals and venues in London and further afield, including the V&A Museum of Childhood, the Museum of London Docklands, on board the Cutty Sark, Wilton’s Music Hall, the London Review Bookshop, Folk East festival 2016 and the Minack Theatre.

The Broads supply their repertoire of traditional stories with a very contemporary verve and energy, using old songs to fuel new takes on the lives of women both past and present.

“Young female quartet the Norfolk Broads are strong storytellers … Their close harmonies brought a witty feminist take to a well-curated set of tales of impotence, greedy landlords, and the joys of a single life.” — Imogen Tilden, The Guardian