Wiegand von Hartmann devise a striking, minimalist identity for lighting manufactory Formagenda

Having built a reputation since 2006, Formagenda is a lighting manufactory renowned for their timeless and elegant products. Processed at the highest level and hand-finished to perfection, their products’ subtle design language suits cosy residential and clean professional atmospheres alike. In close collaboration with Formagenda, fellow Munich-based creative agency Wiegand von Hartmann created a bold graphic language for their print and digital spaces.

Deeply inspired by the form and function of the lighting pieces, the designers let this notion impact the choices behind the visual language, whereby the resulting identity is both modern and minimal. “We wanted to give the identity a feeling of Swiss precision to underline the perfection of the lightning manufacturing,” studio Co-founder Sophie von Hartmann tells us, describing the client’s influence on their typeface choices. “They hand-finish their products in this really special and beautiful backyard studio,” she adds. 

Aiming for legibility across print and digital, the studio opted for sans serif Helvetica Now as the primary typeface. The wordmark is custom, on the other hand, with its ascender and descender adapted to match the capital ‘F.’ The use of a limited palette and blank space contributes to the typography’s contrast against the stark backgrounds, as von Hartmann explains, “the general look is mainly white with black typography to have a modern, slick and reduced overall impression.”

Returning to Formagenda’s works as the identity’s starting point, white is reminiscent of a gallery or exhibition space to display the brand’s products. Yellow as a highlight colour, on the other hand, calls to mind the bright glow of a lightbulb. These yellow areas are pre-printed, allowing for additional information to be printed on top. Depending on the use and context, either printed crop marks, or these yellow shapes, define information areas. “The yellow shapes and areas are there to symbolise light beams and cones from different lamps of the product palette,” von Hartmann adds. “The idea behind them as graphic elements is to have a white space that is highlighted with ‘light cones’ representing significant information.”

Wiegand von Hartmann

Formagenda