Artizine Publishing

Logo design and brand identity system

Velcrobelly worked closely with independent curator Gráinne Sweeney of GMS Ealain to design a logotype and brand identity structure for her arts publishing imprint, Artizine.

A curation and publishing platform, Artizine make affordable, conversational, behind-the-scenes stories all about art and everyday life.

Gráinne needed a brand identity that would demonstrate the imprint’s passion for artistry and curation – the Art and the Zine – while standing out among well established brands in the arts publishing market.

Velcrobelly embarked on a comprehensive period of research and visual exploration – some of which can be seen in the logo sketchbook video above – developing a number of engaging creative solutions for Artizine, which were reviewed and refined over many months.

Alongside a conventional digital logo design process, there was also experimentation with hand-drawn elements and print-making marks – aimed at capturing the analogue aesthetic and history of print. Although not used in the final identity, it highlighted many vital aspects for consideration in our digital design solution, not least the readability of the imprint’s spine icon.

The final logotype design concept actually started with lo-fi zine graphics, particularly inspired by Jamie Reid’s ransom note-style lettering. His work demonstrated how visual history and printed matter could be rearranged and recontextualized, reborn as a new narrative. We took that lo-fi, assembly concept from zines and combined it with a timeless serif font, Sabon.

Designed by Jan Tschihold, Sabon is a beautiful serif with with a long history of use in analogue book printing and has been reworked itself for the digital age. This seemed incredibly appropriate for a publishing platform which revels in ink and paper assemblage as much as pixels.

Sub-brand identities

Design of distinct product lines within the Artizine Publishing family

Within Artizine are a growing number of sub-brands, each of which focus on different methods of curation and presentation of artistic life. Each sub-brand identity needed to be distinct but immediately recognisable as part of the Artizine family. Some sub-brands would focus on long-form printed matter, while others would be short-form or digital.

Picture Article

Art stories and exhibition guides

8×10

Artwork and artist calling cards

Speakeasy

Behind-the-scenes conversations with artists

Picture Article

The sub-brands required careful consideration and testing to develop a set of design rules governing their presentation across print and digital media.

8×10

Each sub-brand has a distinct colour palette which has been carefully chosen to offer design flexibility within the sub-brand, while working harmoniously with sibling sub-brands and the overall Artizine identity.

Speakeasy

Beyond brand identity, Velcrobelly also designed layout templates for each of the publications which comprise the sub-brands, and completed work on several limited edition print runs of Picture Articles.

Our brand identity solution effectively represents Artizine’s passion for creativity, curation and storytelling in the arts publishing market. It’s a flexible body of work which will stand GMS Ealain in good stead as they build their imprint. We are very proud to have worked in collaboration Gráinne Sweeney on this project.

Artizine at GMS Ealain
British Art Network: Gráinne Sweeney