Bloomin' good
Reviewed by Emily Gosling
It must be something of a dream project when an agency gets commissioned to work on those big-name cultural clients – museums, art galleries, orchestras, theatre companies, et al. You’d expect such projects to be a departure from the constraints and stakeholder-limitations of corporate clients; and perhaps a chance to be more creative than usual, thanks to the nature of collaborating with artistic organisations.
Something like a botanical garden sits in a strange spot between the two worlds of corporate and culture: it’s not art, but it’s not commercial; it’s about nature, yet has many of the same goals as a cultural institution – engaging with the public, education, attracting new audiences, and so on. So it’s interesting to see how branding agency behemoth Wolff Olins has tackled such a brief in its recent work for the Bronx’s New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), for which it created a new brand strategy, visual identity and verbal identity.
The New York Botanical Garden opened in 1891 and according to Wolff Olins, is both a “local treasure” and a “globally significant institution”. The agency continues, “Visitors knew about the vibrancy of the experience of NYBG as a place, and scientists and researchers knew it as an institution of academic, horticultural, and botanic expertise.”
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Collections: Bespoke Typefaces
I’m continuing to build out the BP&O ‘Collections’ pages to provide a better browsing experience. This will give you a decade-long overview of the brands featured on the site from 2011-present based on key assets such as colour palettes, custom type and logotypes. These are currently a work in progress.
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Growing up
Reviewed by Richard Baird
Dutch organisation ‘DESPAR’ was established in 1932 by entrepreneur Adriaan van Well. Just like the Co-op, DESPAR was founded on a close co-operation between retailers and wholesalers at a local level, with the intention of better meeting the needs of customers with products at affordable prices. The name, styled ‘De Spar’, was an expression of this mission, and an acronym (or ‘backronym’) of the slogan Door Eendrachtig Samenwerken Profiteren Allen Regelmatig. In English this translates as ‘everyone benefits from working regularly together’…
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Now on Brand Archive:
Dyson by Dyson Design Group, 1998
Brand Archive is a new research tool from the team behind BP&O. Discover a long history of corporate identity design, from the 1960s to present day. Using our custom built filter, discover individual assets from signage, to packaging to liveries, drawn from over 700 brands.
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Thank you for subscribing to the BP&O Newsletter. If you’re interested in other design-related resources and tools, also check out these from the same team:
Brand Archive – Research tool for brand designers.
LogoArchive Website – Searchable modernist logo archive & research tool.
Logo Histories – Stories behind great historical logos.
LogoArchive Shop – Vintage design books & LogoArchive Zines.