A small museum commission asked us to design a wayfinding system that could breathe. The constraints were unusual, the budget was modest and the result is still the project we point to most often when explaining what we do.
Working with illustrators is one of the joys of our job. It is also where projects most often go sideways. A practical guide for art directors, with notes on briefs, fees, revisions and the email we send before the first sketch.
Half the project is decided in the first two days. After a few too many awkward kickoff meetings we built a small playbook that mixes interviews, archive walks and one slightly silly exercise. Here is the agenda and what each part is trying to surface.
Every three months we collect what we have been reading, watching and quietly stealing from. This issue: a Japanese binding manual from 1978, a podcast about civic typography and the gallery show that has us rethinking colour entirely.
We have noticed a shift in the briefs landing in our inbox: longer-form pieces, more whitespace, fewer captions. A few thoughts on why image-led storytelling feels relevant again and the photographers we are watching this year.