Jungle Se7ens - Pentagram

Each year Pentagram design the graphic identity for the London Design Festival and successfully visually illustrate the chosen focus for each of the years. Looking through each of the years it is clear that a strong overall sense of consistency has been established despite each of the outcome being unique each year. 

'While the Festival's colour theme of white on red has been consistent, Pentagram have adapted each brief to produce distinctive visual identities to ensure that each edition of the Festival stands alone.'

'Red is the colour of London; the buses, the phone boxes and the pillar boxes ... the brief was just to make it impactful, and in a way that's never changed each year.' - Dominic Lippa, of Pentagram

I have chosen the years that to me stand out the most and can influence me within my design process for the festival identity that I will develop. 


2018

London Typeface

This year's graphic identity draws from Edward Johnston’s 1916 typeface Johnston, famed for its use on London Underground. The font is one of the most iconic pieces of design London has brought to the world. It’s a humanist, democratic font, and everyone can access it so this was the source for the idea.  The identity is playful, showcasing the nature of the Festival itself. Pentagram have designed interventions into the font, fracturing the typeface and creating something ever-evolving and relatable.

2017

Neon

Pentagram's 11th consecutive visual identity for London Design Festival used red neon lettering, artfully captured by John Ross, in an effort to pay homage to the uniqueness of London's urban beauty.

2014 

Lose Yourself in Design

London is a huge and unplanned city where even the most experienced visitors can lose their way. For the 2014 Festival, Pentagram honoured London’s chaotic nature by challenging visitors to “Lose yourself in the London Design Festival”. This sentiment inspired the maze graphic, which at the time was a distinct break from the typographic London Design Festival identities of previous years. It invited visitors to explore the Festival without a set agenda and happen upon exciting events, projects and installations that they may not have otherwise have discovered.

2011

Design from all Angles

For the 2011 edition of the Festival, Pentagram responded by producing a visual identity which played with fragments and angles - distorting and disrupting typography to produce an active, and dynamic, visual experience.

2009

Be Bold, Make a Statement

For the 2009 edition of the Festival, Pentagram's identity urged visitors to look at design as a way of making a statement. The graphic identity echoed this, drawing a clear line between design, identity, and expression.