The Edit: five new projects including St. Leo by Alex Hunting 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.

Danish paint and plaster company St. Leo creates premium, eco-friendly finishes inspired by culture and derived from nature. They aim to elevate architectural spaces through the use of high-quality natural minerals and a dedication to sustainability, tactility and understated elegance. Launched in Copenhagen in 2019, St. Leo’s debut collection features 19 pre-mixed, coloured mineral plasters made from super-fine crushed dolomite stone, recycled ash and organic pigments. Tasked with devising St. Leo’s visual identity, London-based creative agency Alex Hunting Studio found inspiration in hand-carved stone lettering as a homage to artisanal stone and plaster craftsmanship. Their references come to life through the elegant application of 205TF’s chiselled serif Louize Display, a beautifully-crafted monogram and a muted colour palette derived from St. Leo’s debut collection. To further echo the raw, crafted nature of the product range, the studio chose a set of rough and tactile Takeo Satogami paper stocks for the packaging and stationery.

Founded by Amber Weaver, Type-01 is a typography-focused media company that showcases exciting designers, projects and campaigns through a selection of articles, interviews and in-depth features. Working closely alongside London-based French designer Marion Bisserier, Weaver has rebranded the platform to reflect better the diversity of the work they showcase and celebrate. The new-look aims to transcend typographic traditions and trends by feeling both classic, contemporary, experimental and functional. In addition to a glorious palette of neon and pastel colours, the identity centres around a custom sans serif typeface. Crafted by Bisserier to represent diversity as well as the equal treatment of all the visual, cultural and technological influences of type, the typeface achieves originality and spontaneity through an inventive collection of ‘0’ characters that change with each application of the logotype.

In the pursuit of timeless elegance, Mongolian fashion stylist Suree offers personal style consultations, wardrobe makeovers and individual shopping sessions. She employed Warsaw-based UNWIND Studio to develop her visual identity, with a desire to strike a balance between luxury and femininity. The result achieves just that through a healthy focus on negative space, refined typography and tactile printing techniques. Gold, brown and sandy tones make up the colour palette, inspired by the garments Suree most commonly implements into her style recommendations.

Located on the island of New Caledonia, Hair Break is a hairdressing salon with a predominantly female customer base. Aiming to expand into new areas and introduce an organic hair care product range, founder Jeremie commissioned local brand and interface designer Tiffanie Mazellier to reimagine the salon’s visual identity. Mazellier set out to graphically capture Hair Break’s interior design of striking black and white walls and dainty wooden furniture. Using Commercial Type’s Schnyder as a starting point, she devised a bespoke wordmark with a custom ‘A’ inspired by the “vegetal curves of art nouveau” as well as the flowing nature of hair. It’s employed unapologetically in application alongside a series of halftone shadow and light textures formulated from imagery of moving hair, resulting in an identity system that challenges the traditional aesthetic of a salon.

Based in London, JW.DJ Academy offers DJ tutorage and masterclasses for enthusiasts of all levels. Ready for their launch in October 2020, Irish designer Duane Dalton created a bespoke symbol for the company that combines the proportions of a vinyl record with an upwards arrow representative of academic progression to form an ‘a’ character. Lineto’s LL Replica complements its sharp angular forms in application, while its “modern digital look feels appropriate for the newly established and contemporary JW.DJ Academy”, Dalton explains. A strikingly bright ‘Day Glow Orange’ brings electricity to the identity, while subtly hinting at the endless pool of talent that enrol at the academy.