Studio/lab designs identity-based systems of communication that are realized in branding programs, environmental graphics, information design systems, and print and digital publications. As master typographers, and typographic enthusiasts, we are interested in the role that custom typography might play in establishing and invigorating brand identity.
To typecast is to stereotype, perhaps a bad thing for the aspiring actor, yet the overuse of a visual trope can be a good thing in brand identity. A custom font, crafted to express core brand attributes, used with relentless repetition and inventive articulation, provides the consistency needed to establish identity and the flexibility desired to keep it fresh and evolving.
This idea of making, not selecting, a typeface has underscored the work of our studio for nearly two decades. It began with a stroke of luck. In 1997 Studio/lab was invited to design a logo for Chicago Shakespeare Theater. We were seeking to visually embody the ideals of the aspiring regional Shakespeare Repertory Theater in a wordmark that would signal the group’s move to dramatic new facilities on Chicago’s Navy Pier and onto the World Stage.
The new role of “cultural hub” for Chicago’s most popular tourist destination fit right in with the company’s populist philosophy. Barbara Gaines, Founder and Artistic Director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater, believes that Shakespeare speaks to everyone. Productions are uniquely vibrant, accessible, and modern. Literally situated on Lake Michigan with a stunning view of the city skyline, ideas of place were to be central to the final typographic solution. This logo was not to be a literary interpretation of Shakespeare (no script type). It was to be egalitarian and modern (sans-serif), urban (bold, tall and dense), and, somehow, “of the water.”
As we sought a typeface upon which to build the mark, no existing font seemed condensed enough (we were working with 25 characters), or bold enough (this is Shakespeare with attitude), or tall enough (Chicago is a city of skyscrapers). Then, by magic, I remembered some wonderfully tall and expressive letterforms designed collaboratively by Philip Burton and Armin Hofmann, my former teachers at Yale University. As the story goes, the beginnings of this font emerged in Norfolk, Connecticut, in the 1980s at a Yale Graphic Design retreat where Burton was using type design as a basis to teach his teacher, Hofmann, about the wonders of the new Macintosh computer. My hope was that there was some record of these letterforms and that they might be available for use.
Burton, now my colleague at the University of Illinois at Chicago, responded to our idea with enthusiasm. The story was true. The letters existed. He offered to create the capital letters, which had never been attempted. This led to the second stroke of magic. The omission of capital letters removed any sign of of literary formality and created the desired attitude of irreverence. The pure geometry of the characters even create a wave-like base from which the ascenders rise from the Chicago lakefront to signify the drama of the city skyline.
Rich with the full (capital-less) alphabet, we began to imagine how this unique font might become the basis of a visual identity system for Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Introduced in the logo, the “Norfolk” font was renamed “Shakespeare” and used exclusively for the titles of all productions, programs, and publications.
Our goal in encouraging the use of the custom font for all productions was twofold. We believed regular use of the font would provide immediate brand identity. With a distinctive and unique font the title of the production implies Chicago Shakespeare Theater, even in the absence of the logo. We also hoped regular use of the font would help the organization to avoid the typographic cliçhes so common in design for the theater (dripping blood type for Macbeth, fanciful floral type for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, or billowy script for The Tempest, etc.).
Today, as a global theater hosting and touring productions to international venues, Chicago Shakespeare Theater continues to demonstrate standards of excellence as it casts the world’s great performers in productions that are typecast with a bit of graphic design history.
University of Chicago, Willam Eckhardt Research Center
Our most recent custom font is currently under development for the William Eckhardt Research Center at the University of Chicago. The ERC Font, used in wayfinding and architectural graphics, is designed with scientific and humanist qualities to highlight the range of disciplinary activities that take place at the center from astrophysics to nanotechnology. In the logo for Quantum Café, the custom Q comes to life (and death) illustrating a famous quantum physics thought experiment: Shrodinger’s Cat.
Mattel Hot Wheel
To reinvigorate their 35-year-old Hot Wheels brand, Mattel challenged Studio/lab to explore the graphic possibilities. A significant result of our work was the development of a custom font family:
Ready Set Go.
Built from principles of speed, power, performance, and attitude, Ready Set Go has a base character set that can be customized with color and graphic effects to represent variable play patterns of toys for boys. The seemingly simple letterforms have endless possibilities that range from the playful, puffy, cartoon-like fun of Crash, to the mud-caked tread-stomped energy of Jam, to sophisticated technical acrobatics of Trax. Used primarily for product packaging, the custom font was briefly, and controversially, considered for an update of the deeply entrenched Hot Wheels logo.
Alzheimer’s Association rebranding
When Studio/lab began work to rebrand Alzheimer’s Association, the world’s largest private funding source for dementia research, the organization was known primarily for its support network of caregivers. With a much-loved, but outdated logo that reflected only its care-related programs and initiatives, we were commissioned to develop and champion a comprehensive identity program that would align the organization’s brand image with its dual mission of care (people) and research (science).
Seeking a font with qualities of duality, we were inspired by The Mix, a combination serif/sans-serif version of Thesis, a font family designed by Dutch typographer Luc(as) de Groot. The Mix Bold, customized with select rounded serifs to achieve the dual qualities of kindness and strength became a central element in the new brand identity.
Spertus Institute
Inspired by the design of Krueck + Sexton Architects, Studio/lab’s conceptual approach for the Spertus Institute wayfinding program is a study in light and reflection: emerging from the Spertus mantra Let there be light. The key design element is a typographic system that combines a modern sans-serif with a traditional serif italic.
Placed on two sides of the many interior glass surfaces, these two fonts create a flickering typeface.
With this type treatment, the Spertus symbol, the flame of a candle, is brought to life in architectural space. The typeface is carried through to various wayfinding applications, including large scale/etched glass directories and entryway graphics