SM x SM
The evolution of Studio MULTI’s brand
Read Time:
Posted on 26.08.2021
It is not often as a creative discipline that we can enjoy the commissioning client role on a project. Starting a new practice presented us with the challenge of finding the right representation of our emerging identity.
Studio Makgill was recommended to us by a friend in the industry, Simon Turnbull, with whom we have worked on various projects in our previous roles. After an introductory session with Hamish Makgill, we knew the approach he applies to all his work - beautifully simple - would align with our branding aspirations for Studio MULTI.
It actually went further than that. As a new architecture practice that has been founded by three architects, each with twenty-plus years in the industry, working with Hamish helped us further develop a narrative that is unique to us.
Studio MULTI came to us quickly as a fitting name for a studio that is collaborative, working at multiple scales across different disciplines and open to multiple outcomes. We are also based in two countries so ‘multi’ felt right.
Clarity, beauty, simplicity, colour and functionality were running themes throughout this branding project, which included the development of a wordmark, colour palette, templates for documents, stationery and development of the website.
The word mark employs Noi Grotesk, by Swiss design studio Studio Feixen. Our version of Noi Grotesk appears as a simple sans-serif font when read at a standard font size - but reveals ink traps (small indents) at the corners of the letters when read at a larger scale. The quirks of the font when zoomed-in on appealed to us. In a way, this references the way we look at buildings, which reveal details the closer you get to them.
We embrace colour in our work – but don’t want to be constrained by it. We encouraged Studio Makgill to develop an elemental digital and print palette that could support our output. Hamish and his team developed a balanced palette of both intense and subtle hues that allows us to convey emotion and experience – not a brand.
Whilst our creative output will be shared digitally, we have also commissioned a limited amount of printed content. Studio Makgill sourced G.F Smith’s Extract range for our stationery, a paper recycled from disposable coffee cups otherwise destined for landfill.
You are reading this on a site by website designer Gareth Jones, also introduced to us by Hamish, who in turn runs one of the only carbon-neutral hosts in the UK.
