Cocolobo is described by Anagrama – the multidisciplinary design agency behind their new visual identity – as a ‘high-end shopping boutique that caters exclusively to strong women with a confident and in vogue fashion sense’. For the name, Anagrama played with the patrons’ ‘characteristic duality’, with a ‘catchy and fun’ compounding of  ”Coco” (coconut in Spanish) and “lobo” (Spanish for wolf), which helped to define the ‘Cocolobo woman’ as ‘not only feminine and sweet, but also independent, aggressive, sensuous and daring’

The agency captured and conveyed this duality in print through the combination of a black and white colour palette ‘portraying the elegant, sober aspect of the brand’, a red highlight to represent ‘all that is feminine and chic’, and the contrast of the logo-mark’s playful familiarity and the logo-type’s sense of exclusivity.

Although I would not have described the project as particularly reflective of the aggressive or daring nature of the ‘Cocolobo woman’, Anagrama have managed, through size and pattern, the tactile, high and subtle craft qualities of an uncoated, debossed material texture and foil print finish, to infuse a distinctive and proprietary quality into the very generic form of a heart. This universality has been appropriately tempered by the conventional but high-fashion sensibilities of the well-spaced, uppercase characters of a modern serif logo-type, the borders you might associate with Chanel and the timeless restraint of a black, white and cream colour palette.

More from Anagrama:

Richard Baird Richard is a British freelance designer and writer who specialises in the development of logos, branding and packaging. He has written for Brand New, Design Week and The Dieline, has featured in Computer Arts magazine and also runs the resource Design Survival. Follow:     |     Twitter     |     Facebook     |     Portfolio     |     Contact

Based around their phi­los­o­phy of health and well-being, Swedish drug store chain Apotek Hjärtat have recently developed Apolosophy, a new, carefully formulated cosmetic line that includes products from the skin and hair care, makeup and sunscreen categories. The range’s visual identity and packaging solution, created to be perceived as tactile, timeless and trustworthy by design agency BVD, unites the on-trend accessibility of a near consistent single line weight, soft curves, rounded terminals, all lower-case and well spaced letter-forms and a simple repetition of form through the ‘a’, ‘o’ and ‘p’, with the classic sensibilities of a black and white colour palette, the quality of a matt surface texture and the restraint of a logo-type only solution across the packaging. The result, while pared-down, really emphasises, compliments and unites the colours and textures of the products with a subtle utility often associated with professional grade cosmetics.

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Richard Baird Richard is a British freelance designer and writer who specialises in the development of logos, branding and packaging. He has written for Brand New, Design Week and The Dieline, has featured in Computer Arts magazine and also runs the resource Design Survival. Follow:     |     Twitter     |     Facebook     |     Portfolio     |     Contact

Anagrama have just completed the branding of Romero+McPaul, an English-style velvet slipper manufacturer and retailer established by Italian shoemaker Mr. Migliori that produces bespoke lines handcrafted by artisans with a ‘trendy twist’.

“For this project, our inspiration was heavily drawn from traditional English types and coat of arms mixed with the over-the-top luxuriousness of The Hamptons and it’s sailing and yacht club maritime lifestyle. With the intention to speak of the product’s duality, we created a storyline based on two characters, Romero and McPaul. Romero is the mischievous heartthrob, representing the product’s playfulness, warmth and latino heritage, while mMcPaul is the serious, traditional man, embodying the product’s ancestral and upscale British nature. We gave the brand the rosemary (or “romero” in Spanish) not only as a wink to its name but also as a reference to this herb’s curious nature, as it only grows close to the sea.”

- Anagrama

The traditional, personal and heraldic ornament of the monogram, the material textures, gold stitching and luxury of the interior, set alongside the more progressive but period qualities of a logo-type built from an efficient contrast of wide and slim, well spaced, uppercase sans-serif letter-forms, raised and underlined detail bound by a consistent single line weight – elements reminiscent of Victorian signage – makes for an interesting conceptual and aesthetic duality. One of flourish and functionality that relates really well to the individual crafted nature of products with a clear practical purpose, the name and divided personalities of the characters behind it, and the period and country from which Romero+McPaul draws its inspiration. These retrospective elements are neatly enhanced by the more contemporary sensibilities of broad unprinted regions across the collateral, the utility of a typewriter slab-serif and the restraint but impact of a bright orange and black colour palette.

More from Anagrama:

Richard Baird Richard is a British freelance designer and writer who specialises in the development of logos, branding and packaging. He has written for Brand New, Design Week and The Dieline, has featured in Computer Arts magazine and also runs the resource Design Survival. Follow:     |     Twitter     |     Facebook     |     Portfolio     |     Contact

James Braund is a Melbourne-based photographer with a background in journalism, an approach ‘characterised by an unfussed, direct methodology’ and over twenty years of experience in the design editorial and advertising fields.

Arising out of a ‘desire for a more contemporary look aimed at designers and art directors’, James’ new identity, developed by Hofstede - an agency committed to typographical craft and detailing – conveys his methodology by leveraging the economy, utility and contemporary sensibilities of a heavy, uncoated, unbleached mixed fibre board, an urban combination of cool and warm concrete greys, the restraint and what Hofstede describe as the robust typographical choice of Akkurate executed with a stacked, uppercase confidence and a good eye for letter and line spacing. This type-only approach is elevated by the high quality finish of a foil set within the reductionist context of broad unprinted regions used across the collateral. The result is a modern aesthetic neutrality and fine detailing that neatly frames the rich detail of James’ photography.

Visit the BP&O Logo Gallery for a chronological guide to all the identities reviewed on BP&O.

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Richard Baird Richard is a British freelance designer and writer who specialises in the development of logos, branding and packaging. He has written for Brand New, Design Week and The Dieline, has featured in Computer Arts magazine and also runs the resource Design Survival. Follow:     |     Twitter     |     Facebook     |     Portfolio     |     Contact

Saxa is an independent on-line dealer, publisher and commissioner of original and editioned works from international artists with differing perspectives and cultures, and taking a curatorial and collaborative approach to making these available to collectors, galleries, institutions and the general public.

Saxa’s visual identity, created by UK-based design agency Graphical House and inspired by crystalline structures, conveys the idea of buyer and artist networks through the coalescing and interconnected forms of an abstract logo-mark which has been applied to a wide range of stationery, packaging and marketing materials as well as a responsive website.

The logo-mark’s vortex of twisting geometric shapes, square boundary and balance of positive and negative space could be viewed as largely abstract but the connections that bind the four separate strings, each beginning with an arrow pointing either north, south, east and west, and the motion of an animated gif, could perhaps be perceived as neatly unifying the themes of collaboration, extended networks and the gathering and dissemination of ideas.

The generously spaced, lowercase and condensed sans-serif letterforms of the logo-type are given the height and authority you might typically associate with uppercase characters with a simple reflection of form between the S and the A that make it appear intentionally reductionist in its construction much like the mark. It is hard to divine any particular communicative value from the arrangement so far as being contemporary and distinctive but the response nature of the two components – expanding and contracting depending on the height of the canvas – add a slightly more dynamic nature to the uniformity and structure of the identity.

Fine texture across the surface of the business card and the hand finish of a blind deboss add a tactile and subtle craft dimensionality while a cool, icy blue colour and a typewriter slab-serif introduces a economical restraint and utility that, like any good gallery, neatly frames the diverse and organic nature of the artwork through stark contrast and a predominately aesthetic neutrality.

Visit the BP&O Logo Gallery for a chronological guide to all the identities reviewed on BP&O.

If you liked this then you may also like:

Richard Baird Richard is a British freelance designer and writer who specialises in the development of logos, branding and packaging. He has written for Brand New, Design Week and The Dieline, has featured in Computer Arts magazine and also runs the resource Design Survival. Follow:     |     Twitter     |     Facebook     |     Portfolio     |     Contact