Fast Company WCI Branding a global award for ideas

Fast Company is a leading business publication based in NYC. They had previously worked with Superfried design studio on the Fast Company logo for – FCLA . MCP. Grill – so commissioned us once again to develop the brand identity for their World Changing Ideas Awards.

They required a 3D style to coincide with their other award and conference brands. As usual my strategy was to start in 2D and look for common characteristics in the letterforms and for potential symmetry. After some extensive experimentation and simplification, it became apparent that the letters WCI could all be constructed via six vertical columns, which in turn could be split to convey two planes of a cube.

Since the name mentioned 'changing' it seemed apt that the brand identity should also convey this message. Inspired once again by my favourite artist Escher – op-art effects were employed in the design to suggest what was occurring at the top, was very different by the time you reached the bottom.

After much testing to obtain the perfect balance between optical ambiguity / intrigue vs letter integrity / legibility the design solution was resolved. Back lit shading and texture were introduced to enhance the ambiguous forms within the structure.

With the 3D design of the brand logo complete, a simplified 2D version was developed to work at small scale and for use on the actual award itself.