The William Morris Society redesign

The William Morris Society was founded in 1955 to make the life, work and ideas of William Morris (1834–96) better known. To coincide with its 50th Anniversary, Pentagram has created a new identity that unifies the society’s communications, which had previously included four separate logos with eleven variations.

The new identity introduces one logo that is made up of a bird emblem and the society’s name. The emblem is hand-drawn and derived from Morris’s bird print which is owned by the society.

The emblem is particularly fitting for the society’s outputs, which include journals and newsletters. It evokes the visual language of the publisher’s colophon and is an expression of Morris’s artistic and literary sensibility. The colour palette places similar importance on Morris’s work and is inspired by his illuminated manuscripts. Alongside the primary colours of red and black, secondary colours have been drawn from his Jasmine print, which is also part of the society’s archive. — Pentagram

The bird emblem is paired with a wordmark based on Garda Nova 3 by Feliciano Type Foundry. Garda Nova – a revisited version of Garda Titling – is a set of titling caps in three styles (serif, chiseled and monolinear, each in three weights). The monolinear No. 3 is a low-contrast sans serif with a British feel and used in this context it certainly evokes the spirit of British early 20th century sans serifs like Johnson and Gill Sans. In both online and offline communication, all copy is set with Monotype’s version of Baskerville.