Mubien’s identity for Apostle champions graphic confidence and typographic simplicity

In a global endeavour, video marketing agency Apostle Digital, based in Sydney, approached Santander and California-based design agency Mubien for an entire brand overhaul of their ‘kick-ass video centred’ business.

Beginning with the logomark, Mubien tells us “we choose and customised Grand Slang due to its uniqueness and aesthetic style,” something perfectly suited to the “modern and powerful personality of Apostle’s team and its naming.” Finding a contradictory complementation with the juxtaposing san serif, Grand Slang was partnered with Helvetica Neue, “creating high contrast and balance, providing cleanliness and legibility, enhancing the logo and the rest of the identity without stealing its prominence,” they explain.

The core of the visual identity is undeniably its confident and unavoidable use of red, inspired by a fierce colour found in their archives. “One of the peculiarities of our studio is that our HQ is established on an old printing workshop inherited from our past generations,” Mubien tells us, “with century-old machines, full of paper catalogues that we use as part of our process.”

Despite being a very digital agency, Mubien have shown incredible consideration for their physical ephemera of Apostle, not skimping by any means, utilising Gmund Action Electric Blood and capitalising on the vibrancy and uniqueness of the paper stock. The blinding ebullience of the paper is indicative of RGB red, referencing the screen-based nature of Apostle, whilst being more affordable and accessible than a Pantone. This confident and unavoidable use of red is undeniably the core of the brand’s identity, showcasing the boldness and assurance of Apostle in what they do and how they do it.

Throughout the new brand is iconography involving hands, even used during the art direction of the modelling shots in their identity campaign. “Apostle has two meanings,” Mubien explains, “a vigorous and pioneering advocate or supporter of a particular policy, idea, or cause,” as well as “an important early Christian teacher or pioneering missionary.” Wanting to add a new meaning to the symbol, Mubien aimed to relate to the existing explanation of the word without being explicitly definitive about it.

Viewing branding as a more “liquid element that is composed of different elements” adaptive to a given situation, their secondary monogram in the identity is simply a reduction of the wordmark. Mubien explains it “is a great representation of the brand to apply when there are small spaces, small applications (like a profile picture), or responsive digital uses.” Indicative of their urbane approach to identity design, the result of their work for Apostle is a triumph, championing typographic and iconographic simplicity alongside a vivid confidence in colour and application.

Mubien

Apostle Digita