Forth + Back’s athletic rebrand for Farm League draws on their collaboration and passion for sport

Working with the likes of the NFL, NBA, Nike and Patagonia, California-based film and television studio Farm League are outgoing and active in both their collaborative partnerships and their work ethic. Channelling this athleticism and passion into the studio’s lively rebrand, LA-based multidisciplinary design practice Forth + Back worked closely with Farm League to bring together the digital reality of their work, and the physical, athletic context of their inspiration. Combining the two to create a spirited, typographically-led identity that cements a digital-first aesthetic middle ground between historical sporting vernacular and the speculative notions behind the future of film.

“The Farm League wordmark is a modified version of Denso Serif by DSType Foundry,” Creative Director Tanner Woodbury tells us, intrigued by the initial collegiate-sport-esque characters of the typeface. “We wanted to create something that felt steeped in tradition but also new and unexpected,” he adds. “This is how we developed what we came to refer to as the ‘half-slab,’ or characters with both slab and sans serif sensibilities,” Woodbury recalls, championing a unique construction of stark condensed letterforms within a minimal, commercial context.

Supporting their bespoke alteration of Denso Serif is the brand’s animated and unexpected combination of type and colour; opting for Grilli Type’s GT America Mono as the wordmark’s supporting act. “We find monospaced fonts to be fascinating in how they were customary on typewriters,” Woodbury explains, noting their newfound digital context in coding environments. “This intriguing duality of old and new world functionality made us want to adopt these forms for the brand,” he adds.

The palette, on the other hand, relates directly back to their sporting lineage, paying homage to Farm League’s work in the sector. “In this way, we chose a rich forest green to complement a soothing sage green,” Woodbury tells us, “we then wanted to inject some energy and excitement into the brand with an electric green,” he concludes, “signalling a brand poised for the future of storytelling in the digital space.”

Forth + Back

Farm League