Guardian 200 Years

In 2021, the Guardian turned 200, and the newspaper wanted to celebrate the milestone with existing readers whilst gaining new subscribers. Instead of celebrating past achievements, the Guardian chose to focus on what comes next.

The campaign uses very clever copywriting and juxtaposition of billboards — Obviously a copy led direction for a newspaper but definitely not obvious copy. Fantastic work by Oliver Agency who have structured themselves to exclusively design, build and run bespoke in-house agencies and marketing systems for brands. This must be a real challenge as a model but they are proving that it works by producing great work like this.

Swiss Architecture Museum

Claudia Basel

Mitch Paone:

Brilliant identity for the Swiss Architecture Museum by Claudia Basel. I particularly like how the exhibition posters allow for an individual typographic treatment based on the architectural image while still working consistently as a identity. Plus, many of these posters are available for purchase on the SAM website. I may pick up a few!

Matisse in the Barnes Foundation

Matt Willey:

The Barnes Foundation contains one of the most significant holdings of Matisse in the world. This definitive three-volume catalogue of the artist at the museum is an utterly wonderful piece of editorial design by Abbott Miller & Kim Walker at Pentagram. It is bold and surprising and yet pitch-perfect. It’s one of the most beautiful – and most considered – book projects I’ve seen in recent years.

Lungs of London

Dn&Co

Rob Duncan:

Dn&Co have designed a poster titled ‘Lungs of London’. The poster depicts the city’s green spaces screen-printed in fluorescent ink and the Thames picked out in varnish. First attributed to William Pitt the Elder, the phrase is often used to defend these life-giving parks and squares against the pressures of urban development. A simple, beautifully crafted green statement. Thanks to Astrid Stavro for the tip.

Hesselholdt & Mejlvang

Studio Claus Due

Mitch Paone:

Here’s a little taste of Copenhagen based design practice Studio Claus Due. The Hesselholdt & Mejlvang project is a wonderful display of minimal conceptual driven work combined with very refined typographic skill. I highly recommend digging through more of their projects. A lot of fantastic work.

Fuel For Fans

GBH

Jamie Ellul:

Fuel For Fans was launched in 2016 as the official e-commerce store for all major teams in Formula 1. GBH were tasked with giving it an iconic, credible logo, worthy of that status. After all F1 fans are a discerning bunch, with design right at the centre of the sport. The solution is deceivingly simple. Once GBH saw the potential for a chequered flag within the three F’s of the name, they spent weeks crafting it. The result is one of those lovely logos that appears effortless.

Sports Series

Malika Favre

Rob Duncan:

Malika Favre is a French artist based in London. Her bold, graphic illustration style cleverly uses positive and negative space as well as light to create depth and intrigue. Her Sports series is now available for purchase at her online store.

Me We

Design by Design Bridge in collaboration with The Counter Press

Alex Swatridge:

A collaborative solution for a collaborative problem. Design Bridge asked The Counter Press to work with them on a book for staff, Me/We explains what they stand for from both agency and individual point of view: read from one end gives the ‘Me’ story, while flipping the book over and reading from the other side gives the ‘We’ story.

Fashion Business School

Alphabetical

Jamie Ellul:

The Fashion Business School is the theory based school of London College of Fashion – focussed on business trends and data analysis. Alphabetical have created a visual identity to distinguish them from the LCF’s renowned fashion design programmes. Taking inspiration from ‘spot and cross’ pattern cutting paper to create an icon to represent each of the 21 courses the School offers. A really simple starting point used to create a complex identity system and exhibition.