The Edit: five projects including ZZZZZZZZZZZ: Excavating Form Within Design Education

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.

On show throughout July 2021 at Shanghai’s IS A Gallery, ZZZZZZZZZZZ: Excavating Form Within Design Education was an exhibition of student work from Rhode Island School of Design’s ‘Newly Formed’ – an experimental graphic design course taught up Kathleen and Christopher Sleboda from North American online bookstore Draw Down. In an attempt to break their regular habits, the course taught students to focus on form over function; the result of which being eleven projects inspired by different words beginning with ‘Z.’ In order to communicate the limitations of remote work within education, the students’ experiments were showcased at the exhibition in the form of screengrabs and cropped previews instead of the usual mediums such as posters and books. Further emphasising the struggles of remote communication, the exhibition’s opposing walls were clad with two thematic statements in a typeface designed specifically for the class by Brooklyn-based designer, web developer and educator Kit Son Lee.

Combining “Parisienne aesthetics with Asian street style,” Gigi is an upcoming clothing brand from Vietnamese fashion group Maison JSC. Their visual identity by Ho Chi Minh City-based studio Behalf aims to embody the refined elegance of their garments – doing so through an ornamental logotype, pared-back colour palette and a plethora of negative space. The tone of voice and loosely-tracked typography establish a charm and delicacy reminiscent of a journal, which alongside a slew of handwritten details, give the brand a personal touch that goes beyond just being another logo on another clothing collection.

Your Future London is an online platform that invites Londoners to explore how the city is faring today and have their say in the direction it should take in the future. Culminating in a vibrant website by London-based design studio Cronica, the project takes typically uninspiring facts and figures and transforms them into a digestible, enjoyable and fundamentally credible experience. The website emphasises all of the usual tropes of a survey, going all out with bright colour, oversized interactive buttons and charming illustrations from Agency Pocko’s Andrea Chronopoulos. The headline typeface – MD Nichrome from Dutch foundry Mass-Driver – was chosen in reference to the typography of paperback science fiction books from the 1970s and early 80s.

The Madrid City Council commissioned Barcelona-based studio Atipus to develop a straightforward and digestible campaign concept to encourage the reduction of plastic waste around the Spanish capital city. Sticking with the neutrality of Neue Haas Grotesk and a monochromatic colour palette, they devised a series of silhouette illustrations that show a wide range of recognisable alternatives to plastics such as glass bottles and paper bags. The realistic illustration style was chosen to make it easy for the city’s passersby to quickly understand the campaign, given the window of just a few seconds to successfully capture their attention.

The result of a collaboration between London-based studio Praline, paper manufacturer Fedrigoni and publisher Thames & Hudson, Collage is a monograph of iconic British pop artist Peter Blake’s work – particularly focusing on his groundbreaking collage explorations. The publication utilises more than 30 different typefaces found in Blake’s archive, each of which Praline either designed, customised or sourced to use across Collage’s thematic sections. Their graphic approach aims to reflect Blake’s appreciation for simple geometric shapes and incorporates a vibrant palette of red, blue, green and yellow to mimic the prevalent colours found within his catalogue of work.