An identity built from one rule
A visual system for an architecture practice, generated from a single geometric constraint.
- Client
- Tessellate
- Year
- 2025
- Timeline
- Nine weeks
- Discipline
- Brand Identity
Overview
Tessellate is a nine-person architecture practice that had outgrown a logo made in its first year. They wanted something with enough structure to survive twenty years of projects, and enough flexibility to feel different on every one.
The problem
A practice this size produces an enormous amount of material: drawings, tender documents, exhibition panels, social posts. Every one had been designed by whoever was free. The work looked accomplished and the presentation did not, which cost them at least two pitches they should have won.
What I did
- 01
Built the entire system from one rule: every mark, grid, and layout derives from a 30-degree tessellation.
- 02
Designed a monospaced-and-serif pairing that reads as technical up close and editorial from across a room.
- 03
Produced a 48-page guideline that a non-designer can follow, because most of their output is made in-house.
- 04
Specified and proofed the stationery on an uncoated stock that takes their drawing linework cleanly.
Outcome
The identity rolled out across print, signage, and the practice website. More usefully, the team now produces their own pitch documents in an afternoon rather than a week.
- Geometric rule behind every asset
- 1
- Pages of usable guidelines
- 48
- People producing on-brand work
- 9
- Print stocks specified end to end
- 3
We asked for a logo. What we got was a way of making everything we produce look like it came from the same practice.