Designing for good: Gold Front’s transformative brand for Silo is worlds apart from the competition

Established to aid the global reform of food distribution and waste through innovative technology, software platform Silo assists each element of the supply chain by optimising management, inventory, purchasing, selling and more – bringing the current slow systems into the modern world in the process. Whether it’s Silo’s real-time data or financial services, the programme offers a positive economic and ecological impact to its users and the wider world, requiring an equally poignant identity to mirror this influence. Turning to category design studio Gold Front, the San Fransisco-based agency crafted an ambitious brand to help structurally and aesthetically fill the market gap they identified – ‘Food Intelligence’ – working closely with Co-founders Ashton Braun and Antonio Bustamante to achieve as much.

“We chose Sharp Sans as the starting point for the logotype, in part for its bold character,” Gold Front’s Founder & CCO Josh Lowman tells us, discussing the use of Sharp Type’s sans serif as the leading typeface. “Mirroring the impact they wish to make in the world,” whilst making a visual reference to physical silos, as evidenced in the satisfying logotype. “Sharp Sans’ geometric letterforms, with a few adjustments, served this purpose perfectly,” Lowman adds, leading the structural, transformative identity system shaped to flex between technical detailing and energetic, eye-catching headlines. Along with eye-catching, market-trope-avoiding colours, the identity sits worlds apart from its competition – reflecting the progressive, forward-thinking brand itself – and captures a distinctly personal, warm tone of voice and innate tangibility. 

“We knew that showing food in some form would be crucial to helping the audience connect with the brand’s humanity and higher purpose,” Lowman details, discussing the initial stages of the brand’s development, “and we also wanted the brand to feel bold and iconic,” exploring the creative direction beyond the graphic identity. “Based on this the design team brought photographer Magalí Polverino’s striking work into the visual system,” he recalls, finding Polverino’s process, practice and attitude an optimal fit within both the team and the brand’s vibe. “From there, because we selected a photographer with such a specific style,” he continues, “when shoot day came, the art direction our team needed to do was minimal,” Lowman concludes, “mostly the casting of fruits and vegetables.” 

Gold Front

Silo