The Edit: five projects including PORTO ROCHA’s identity for Brazillian sports brand Olympikus

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.

Olympikus, the most prominent sports brand in Brazil, set its sights on expanding its products, reaching new audiences, and strengthening existing ones. The rebrand by New York-based design studio PORTO ROCHA was a surefire way of achieving those goals. The refreshed identity brings a more confident and assured look to the brand’s pre-existing elements, from the colour palette’s active hues to the dynamic italics of the typography, featuring Florian Karsten’s FK Olympikus. The punchy custom display typeface is paired with Signal by Production Type. The identity comes together through a robust and flexible modular system inspired by the stripes and geometry typically found in running tracks and sports flags.

London-based design studio DutchScot worked closely with interior architects Conran and Partners, and public realm specialists MICA Architects, to authentically tell the story behind Centre Point, once a disused office block seen as a ‘blight on the horizon,’ that is now a set of apartments and a public square. The publication marks the first in a series launched by property developer Almacantar, which aims to celebrate the untold story of a property – with a focus on the challenges, design and architecture behind it. Ordered chronologically, the book takes the reader from the original vision in the 1960s, through to the construction process and finished project. Translucent pages are interspersed throughout, inspired by the architect’s use of tracing paper. These sheets, featuring original sketches by Conran and Partners and MICA, provide a juxtaposition with the photography, in both its before and after state as the loose gestural marks contrast with the sleek geometric forms of the buildings. The dust jacket continues this idea, with more sketches overlying the clean sans serif typography on the cover below.

Kalamajka is a special edition wine brand made for Glug Wine Club, a Scotland-based wine subscription service which features modern small-batch wines from various countries. The label design by Kira Koroknai blends contrasting visual elements to create an intriguing aesthetic, reflecting the unique twist of the wine it represents. The Budapest-based designer was invited to create a label for the brand’s ‘Vojtek’ edition, a tiny, inventive family winery from Villány who are known for their unique approach to mixing technologies and techniques. Inspired by the name’s meaning – translated as ‘glorious mess’ – Koroknai combined Out of the Dark’s tight typeface ToY with Zita Beke’s hand-drawn illustrations. The sharp, gothic and pointed strokes of the letters are balanced out by the fine line weight of the comic-like drawing. The light pastel lilac label, paired with navy blue lettering alludes to the spicy and bold damson and black cherry notes of the palette. 

Whilst days and months follow the earth’s and the moon’s movements, the concept of the days of the week, all seven of them, are totally arbitrary. Shannon Jager, Catarina Freitas and Duarte Tormenta from Studio Brutus worked together to create the identity for the mindful timepieces of DAYWATCH, an ultra-minimalist brand whose watch faces change once every 24 hours. The project challenges the ways in which we measure time, as it highlights the societal invention of weekdays and our emotional connotations with them. DAYWATCH, with its almost blank watch faces – displaying only the day of the week – is a reminder that ‘it’s just a day, a unique and singular opportunity to exist, right now.’ The core of the identity consists of a geometric sans serif with the contemporary pairing of bright green and black. The palette is softened by versatile muted tones such as desert sand and salmon pink. This contemporary look is continued in the watch faces themselves, as the designers opted for a light sans serif, all caps, in a selection of intentionally simple layouts.

Independent designers Susanna Foppoli and Carolina Magro have collaborated on the brand identity for Royal District, an initiative aimed at promoting the heritage of the Bourbon Dynasty in Southern Italy and a place to discover, explore and experience. Aimed at younger audiences and visiting tourists, the charming visual language centres around a vocabulary of simple shapes, inspired by the common architectural features of the sites within the network; used in a grid to represent a network, illustratively to communicate practical messages, or playfully and expressively in combination with images – unfolding a broad cultural narrative. The pair opted for Naples’ red as the leading colour for its recognisability in institutional applications. This is supported by a selection of varied and colourful hues, mirroring the broad range of ever-changing content related to activities and events.