Studio8 Rebrands Central With a New Custom Typeface
First published on the Eye blog, February 2010, © Eye Magazine Ltd.
(All copy and images belong to © Eye Magazine Ltd.)
Matt Willey and Zoe Bather of Studio8 have announced their integrated design scheme for the Central School of Speech & Drama, which includes identity design, wayfinding and a custom typeface, Fogerty.
‘Central wanted its new identity to be exuberant but retain a sense of the heritage and prestige the school has,’ says Bather.
Studio8 researched old playbills and theatrical ephemera and devised a bespoke typeface based on the neon tube lighting common in theatre signs. They then worked with the Dalton Maag foundry to draw a sans serif font based on the original sign for the Embassy Theatre, adding an inline stroke to each character to create a typeface family in three weights: solid, inline and hairline. The typeface is named after Elsie Fogerty, the school’s founder.