THIS

With a bold aesthetic and clear messaging, Johnson Banks helps to define THIS as a vibrant contender in the burgeoning vegan food sector.

Throwaway buzzword or considered lifestyle choice, veganism is enjoying an immense surge in popularity. Restaurants and supermarkets are adapting their offerings to cater to a changing market with elevated demands. It’s even shaping the content of TV programmes, with the likes of Jamie Oliver sharing more plant-based recipes in his shows, and vegan rounds appearing on TV cooking competitions like Great British Bake Off and MasterChef.

Although there are a handful of staple brands – among them Quorn and Oatly – that have firmly marked their territory, there is still some valuable real estate left to be scored on the supermarket shelves. THIS is the latest brand to take on the vegan market, equipped with a carefully consolidated product range and bold, characterful new branding courtesy of Johnson Banks.

The brand name lends itself particularly well to the snappy, attention-grabbing tone that THIS has harnessed which, along with the crisp monochrome brand colours, should see it catch eyes in the vegan aisle. The brand messaging does teeter on the edge of preachy in places which, on paper, conflicts with its ethos of not ‘guilt-tripping people into changing their diet’ (such as ‘THIS involved no dead animals. In the slightest.’ or ‘THIS is endorsed by piglets’). However, it cleverly speaks to the flexitarian market – one that doesn’t feel ready to give up meat entirely but is sometimes susceptible to feeling guilty when it comes to consuming animal products.

Hat Guild relaunch

Over 15 years since it closed its doors, the newly reformed association of milliners and hatters worked with Counter Studio to create an identity that balances past and present.The rebrand was done in collaboration with Counter Studio, which aimed for a design that would balance the heritage of the industry with the contemporary landscape the Guild operates in today. The logo gives a nod to the millinery trade, while the font unusually draws upon a combination of serif and sans-serif typefaces.

Nike By You

Developed by New York agency Gretel, the new visual identity and brand strategy emphasises Nike’s customisation offering as a ‘co-creation’ service for its customers.

Nike was one of the first brands to venture into the world of personalisation when it launched Nike ID in 2000. Its customisation offering has since grown from just being a feature on its website to include over 100 in-store ‘studios’ all over the world.

Opened in 2018, its new flagship store in New York also offers a bespoke shoe design service where customers can book an appointment with a consultant and have custom trainers created on-site.

The new brand strategy looks to reposition Nike as a service as much as a product, and is accompanied by a refreshed identity led by Gretel’s Design Director Simon Chong.

“We needed to figure out a way to reorientate the brand around co-creation, delivering something that is recognisably Nike, can stand out within Nike environments and flex across endless, unique applications,” says Chong.

The new identity is made up of two ‘layers’; the first representing Nike, and including key elements of the brand such as its famous swoosh symbol and Futura Extra Bold Condensed typeface, along with a black and white colour palette.

The second layer represents ‘you’ (aka the customer), and is intended to be less functional, more expressive. Featuring an array of different colours and graphics, it is flexible enough to allow for endless different iterations for any Nike product.

Helvetica Now

“Helvetica Now is the tummy-tuck, facelift and lip filler we’ve been wanting, but were too afraid to ask for,” said Abbott Miller, Partner at Pentagram. “It offers beautifully drawn alternates to some of Helvetica’s most awkward moments, giving it a surprisingly thrillingly contemporary character.”

The Helvetica Now typeface is available in three optical sizes – Micro, Text and Display. Helvetica Now Micro solves the decades-old spacing and legibility shortcomings of single-master versions of the family at the smallest sizes (4- to 7-points). It also offers more open apertures, wider forms, a larger x-height, open spacing, larger accents, optical adjustments to the shapes of complex forms, and a number of other changes to produce a highly-legible font at very small sizes.

Helvetica Now Display, meanwhile, provides a range of weights from Hairline to Extra Black, with appropriate spacing, for 14-point settings and up. Big, bold, attention-grabbing Helvetica no longer requires the trimming of characters, manual adjustment of spacing and kerning, or the resizing and repositioning of punctuation necessary with the legacy versions.

Helvetica Now Text is a true workhorse, and comes in a range of weights from Thin to Black with carefully combed spacing and kerning. Helvetica Now Text is easy and pleasing to read, and an ample palette for demanding information-rich design environments.

Hagi Baby packages

“Packaging for Hagi Baby—natural handmade cosmetics for babies. The project includes the packaging design for a series of creams. Hagi Cosmetics is a brand driven by respect and a love of nature. The products are manufactured on a small scale, with no additives and a clean process. The design combines drawings of animals with simple, minimalist typography. Overall, the visual language tells the story of natural and safe products for children in a modern, clean language.”Designed By: Podpunkt

Nike – Dream Crazier

Get Raw rebrand

Sweden-based agency Snask redesigned the branding and packaging for GET RAW, a health bar brand that aims to provide a wholesome approach to snacking.

“GET RAW is a health bar that is organic, vegan, gluten-free and refined sugar-free. They contacted us and asked us to do a full rebrand to modernize their visual identity and tone of voice. With no empty calories, bland flavours or pointers to fad diets we felt that it was a great product that needed to become more interesting and better looking.”

Pentagram rebrand Hay Festival

Designed by Marina Willer, the new identity centres on a colourful tree symbol which represents the different branches of work that the festival’s organisers carry out today.

Already a well-established brand, Pentagram Partner Marina Willer was tasked with helping the team behind Hay Festival to better express visually what they do on a daily basis.

Willer has created an over-arching brand identity that spans the various locations and channels which are now a key part of the festival, as well as renaming the overall brand as Hay Festival.