Georgia Harizani and Filippos Fragkogiannis play with typographic structure for AkzoNobel’s planner

Thessaloniki-based Georgia Harizani and Athens-based Filippos Fragkogiannis have paired up to create a yearly planner as part of the corporate gifting of AkzoNobel Coatings SA (the Greek branch of multinational powder coating supplier AkzoNobel) – utilising their colour of the year, Brave Ground, for the front cover. Selling internationally under the name Interpon, AkzoNobel produced Brave Ground to represent a sense of stability and reliability at an uncertain time. Seeing an opportunity to produce something typographically contrary to this, Harizani and Fragkogiannis played with an irregular and purposefully disjointed aesthetic structure to playfully contrast the colour in use.

Formatted to be chunky and tactile, Harizani and Fragkogiannis explain “we designed it as such to serve the needs of their clientele,” suggesting architects, engineers and project managers, adding “who may require ample space for note-keeping during office hours.” Big enough to handle significant amounts of written notes, but handy enough to carry around, the planner is perfectly suited to the audience at hand.

Both inline with the company’s branded ephemera and tonally reflecting the rigorous nature of the planner, the duo used Helvetica Neue throughout as the typeface of choice. “It’s not exactly their corporate font but one the Greek company has used in the past,” Harizani and Fragkogiannis add. “It’s a ‘traditional’ font that manages to stay modern due to its neo-grotesque character,” they explain, representing AkzoNobel in doing so, due to their considered history of doing what they do, whilst simultaneously pushing the forefront of innovative technology. “We felt Helvetica conveys both the trust in tradition and modernity the company reflects through its presence,” Harizani and Fragkogiannis conclude.

Georgia Harizani

Filippos Fragkogiannis