FranklinTill's new identity

If you’ve ever had a piece of post from the Zetteler office, you’ll know we’re total suckers for stationery. But FranklinTill’s new identity (including a new logo, website and print assets) developed in collaboration with design studio Commission took our love to new levels. The excited squeaks when we saw the textured address stickers, for example, were audible in Birmingham.

The design studio behind this superb new look, London’s Commission, worked closely with FranklinTill founders Kate Franklin and Caroline Till to make sure that all elements of the new look embodied exactly what the agency is all about. One of the most respected and influential forces in global design innovation, FranklinTill is the go-to expert for research and strategic insight in the design world, relaying its focus on colour and material futures via exhibitions, events, workshops and its magazine Viewpoint as well as book Radical Matter, published by Thames and Hudson in March this year.

What was your creative starting point?

Our starting point was to focus on what the studio does best – design, colour, and materials. The identity needed to have a sensitive approach that touched on all these aspects but at the same time, we wanted to give them a solid identity with a timeless quality that could transcend the trends and aesthetic movements that the studio profiles. It also needed to complement the breadth of highly visual content rather than sit uncomfortably alongside it.   

Was there a particular inspiration for the design?

In terms of inspiration, an initial point of reference for us was the colour calibration cards used to match colours accurately in photography and print. We’ve always loved Peter Saville’s cover for New Order’s “Power, Corruption & Lies” which references a similar trope. We’ve always enjoyed the tension between the Fantin-Latour painting of flowers from the 1890s and the swatches of colour on the side. We later found out that FranklinTill actually uses something similar to this in their own process called colour weights which tied in nicely to what we proposed.

Given colour plays such an important part in FranklinTill’s work, how did this inform the direction of the design?

The design for us had to have the lightest of touches, we almost wanted the design to disappear and make it more about the colours and materials. With the stationery, for example, the FranklinTill identity is clear foiled onto different materials and colours. At first, your attention is drawn to the mix of colours and materials and then you discover the clear foil. On the website, the images become abstracted to the point where it becomes all about colour. 

Texture and materiality are also integral to their work – how do you communicate those qualities in a purely digital setting?

We felt the best way to capture the texture and materiality of FranklinTill’s work was through art direction and the photography that would appear online. We worked with photographer Luke Evans with the idea of bringing materials and textures into the shoot that would reflect the content of the particular project. As a result, I think we have a rich set of assets that are undeniably FranklinTill in look and feel.

Do you have a favourite feature of the branding?

I think the photography on the website really makes it. So many websites are brought down by photography and content that feels like an after-thought. Luckily FranklinTill had the foresight to challenge this and the result really ties everything together. 

One the site, the colours on the page are informed by the image selection – how does that work?

We wanted the identity to react to the content underneath. We like the idea that this becomes an ever-changing part of the site and that FranklinTill don’t really have a colour palette. Their colour palette is whatever they’re working on or talking about at any one time.

Would you describe the FT project as a ‘typical’ one for the studio, or were there unique or unusual elements to the process?

We have had other creative studios as clients before but the brief and outcome are totally unique which I think has resulted in something very different for us. We’ve always believed in letting colour come through in materials and photography rather than just adding it for the sake of it. I think the outcome for FranklinTill is the ultimate expression of that.

To find out more about the ground-breaking work that FranklinTill does, check out this Q&A with founders Caroline Till and Kate Franklin here.

Click here to find out how Zetteler team is helping FranklinTill achieve its vision.