The Edit: five new projects including OM130 by Tuman Studio

Each and every day, we're lucky to discover dozens of interesting and inspiring projects from around the world. From global identities and campaigns to side projects and independently published books, The Edit is home to five of them; every two weeks.

Consisting of 21 original compositions, OM130 is a tribute album celebrating the 130th anniversary of Russian and Soviet poet Osip Mandelstam. The tracks are arranged in chronological order, beginning with Mandelstam’s earliest works before progressing throughout his esteemed career. Moscow-based branding agency Tuman Studio were commissioned to create the visual identity and website for the project, for which they decided to utilise a striking combination of typefaces to represent Mandelstam’s multi-generational career. The typefaces in question are Blaze Type’s Apoc and Lucas Descroix’s Nostra – a pairing chosen for the similarity between Mandelstam’s poems and Greek and Roman inscriptions. “The combination of these typefaces forms a mystical plexus of historical and handwritten forms reimagined in a contemporary context,” Irina Kosheleva, Art Director at Tuman Studio, tells us, adding that they “reflect the essence of the OM130 project – Mandelstam’s poetry transmitted through the optics of contemporary musicians.”

Made in Poland but available worldwide, Terrapi is a microbiology-based skincare brand with a concise range of products made without oils and glycerin. For their packaging, Warsaw-based design studio UNWIND found inspiration in the “idea of earth-inspired therapy” in reference to Terrapi’s clean and natural values. Embracing the elegance of Laïc Type Foundry’s serif Iskry in combination with a muted colour palette of black, brown and white, UNWIND have produced a visual identity and packaging system that feels both friendly and relaxing while exuding sophistication.

Condiment Club is a UK-based online shop and community offering a range of sustainable-made, small-batch condiments, from ‘Too Much Motherf***in’ BBQ Sauce’ to more traditional mayonnaise and ketchup. Designed in-house, the company’s identity is as vibrant as the sauces it sells; aiming to mirror the messy and unashamed joy that a helping of sauce brings to a meal. Alongside its Sriracha red and herby Tartare green colour palette, the visual identity thrives in its garish combination of typefaces. The wordmark is set in OH no Type Company’s Obviously Condensed, which contains an added tittle to its uppercase ‘I’ “as if it were a blob of sauce,” founder Sam Quinton tells us. It’s supported by the Black weight of Dinamo’s Ginto Nord and a custom typeface unapologetically named ‘Sriracha Sans.’ “The nozzle on the Sriracha allows the bottle to be used like a giant red rollerball,” Quinton explains, “so we wrote out the alphabet, vectored the photos and put them into Glyphs.”

Permission is Toronto’s first size-inclusive and body-positive retail experience for curated, athletic apparel. Honing in on the store’s universal ethos, creative agency and fellow Toronto inhabitants Vanderbrand devised a typographic identity system with fluidity and flexibility at its core. As a result, each application of Permission’s wordmark is different, representing the countless evolutions that individuals experience throughout their lives through a broad series of alternative glyphs. These bold, enlarged and interactive typographic treatments playfully and characterfully act as a graphic expression of one’s body in motion.

With multiple locations across the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania, Footshop is one of the largest sneaker and apparel retail offerings in Eastern Europe. Since starting in 2011, they’ve grown from a domestic destination for sneakers to possess a global online store at the heart of contemporary culture. As a result, they required an updated identity and online presence, turning to Prague-based Studio Najbrt for a solution. Their answer is rooted in Footshop’s origins in graffiti, hip-hop and skateboarding culture; revolving around a playful system of hand-drawn lines and a custom sans serif typeface named ‘Foot.’ “We wanted to capture street smart audacity, with which you can strike through, tag narcissistically, but also create something new with a healthy dose of infantile optimism,” Studio Najbrt graphic designer Michael Dolejs explains about the sporadic nature of the identity’s squiggles and brush strokes. A special cut of the custom typeface, named ‘Foot Carbanica,’ generates pre-made combinations of letters and lines, meaning “everyone can create their own logo version and nothing should be theoretically wrong,” Dolejs concludes.