Universal Favourite have just launched a new project, the rebrand of CADA, Australia’s home of hip-hop and R&B.

Although an already-established radio station, to become the community-focused youth channel they truly wanted to be, they needed a complete brand overhaul. We began with strategy, forming the brand idea of “Closer To Culture”. This gave us the leaping-off point for the visual identity — the concept of CADA as more than just a place for music, but a curator of culture.

The type system was designed to straddle the line between Pop and Hip Hop, showcasing versatility and ensuring it didn’t isolate any of the platform’s listeners. We used Commercial Type’s Graphik as the primary typeface, its multiple weights and widths giving us the flexibility and cohesion we needed. While the boldness of Graphik grounds the brand, Commercial Type’s Ayer complements it, producing a distinctive and highly-ownable combo.

From naming right through to the outdoor launch campaign, we worked with the crew at CADA to help them build their brand from scratch and set the tempo for their launch as an Australian youth media and entertainment enterprise.

Read more about the project in the case study.

Arkkitehtipäivät (Architecture Days) is an annual architecture seminar held by SAFA, the Finnish Association of Architects. The 2019 event took place in May and included 350 architects and architecture aficionados.

Designer and illustrator Sofia Pusa created the identity for this year’s event, featuring Fit in bold displays and Graphik Wide and Graphik Condensed for supporting text. Pusa describes her process:

The theme of the 2019 event was Kuri ja järjestys (Discipline and Order). I really loved how the Fit typeface made the words kuri (discipline) and järjestys (order) look like brutalist architecture and a condensed city, which made it a perfect match for the branding concept.

As Fit’s designer, it is incredibly rewarding for me to see Pusa take full advantage of the typeface’s blocky, architectural forms and set it at monumental sizes. The words in Fit act like illustrations, contrasting the otherwise-sparse design with bursts of complexity. I also really dig the colors.

Poster for an exhibition at DEMO gallery in Auckland run by Whitecliffe post-graduate students. Poster uses Graphik (with the alternate monocular a) and a custom typeface called Homerun designed by Tutū Studios.

Printed at A2 on 250gsm matte stock.