Petrobras Launch New Corporate Font Designed by Dalton Maag

Petrobras, one of the largest energy companies in the world, has unveiled a new custom font designed by Dalton Maag as part of its corporate identity.

The energy company has a presence in 28 different countries, and is a household name in Brazil, with more than 7,000 petrol stations across the country. This is the first time during the 60 year history of the company that Petrobras has had its own, unique font. The new font family ties the brand elements together to form a consistent whole, unifying their identity across the company.

Dalton Maag were approached by The LED Project, based in São Paulo, to help them with the typography for the new approach to the Petrobras identity. The Dalton Maag team in Brazil worked in collaboration with the London studio to produce a total of 40 concepts which were then discussed with the LED Project and narrowed down to six for presentation to Petrobras.The new font, Petrobras Sans, is a confident sans serif typeface with a firm construction that suggests the solidity of a multinational business, whilst including a softer human side. The terminals taper smoothly to create a more organic feel to the letter forms, which also adds individuality to the design. This difficult and interesting balance was created to reflect the human talent which Petrobras feels is one of the keys to the success of the company. Classic principles of typography were then used to make sure that every letter was legible even in the smallest sizes.

Fabio Haag, Creative Director of Dalton Maag Brazil, said: “All of us Brazilians at Dalton Maag are especially proud of being part of this project, and helping to create the new voice of Petrobras. The biggest challenge was to create a typographic concept with the unique personality of the brand, while keeping it extremely legible so that it would perform well at display and text sizes. It had to work for the complex range of applications used by Petrobras, from TV commercials to the gas stations and everything in between.”

http://blog.daltonmaag.com/

http://www.daltonmaag.com/

Aktiv Grotesk eight new weights

Dalton Maag have today (18/01/13) released eight new styles/weights of the superb Aktiv Grotesk font: Hairline, Thin, Exta Bold and Black, with matching italics. The launch coincides with the font’s use in the English National Ballet brand new identity and campaign.

Dalton Maag Press Release Information

The English National Ballet are launching a radical new brand and advertising campaign that uses Dalton Maag’s Aktiv Grotesk for their new logo. The campaign, by creative agency The Beautiful Meme, features stunning photography of English National Ballet dancers wearing couture garments by Vivienne Westwood.

Dalton Maag’s Aktiv Grotesk was modified to create a unique logotype for the ballet company. The starting point was Aktiv Grotesk Bold, with the spacing and leading of the individual characters being refined to create the perfect typographic balance for the words “English National Ballet”. The most major modification was to replace the standard Aktiv Grotesk “g” with a new two-storey version for greater aesthetic appeal. Aktiv Grotesk was chosen for its clean lines and modernity, which challenge the traditional image of ballet.

Ben Haworth, Creative Director of The Beautiful Meme said: “The decision was made quite early on to deviate from any visual preconceptions of ballet predominantly including script or baroque serif typefaces. We wanted a brand typeface that would reflect and support Tamara Rojo’s artistic vision of communicating a core truth that everyone in the Company has something to say.

Aktiv Grotesk seemed the perfect vehicle to profess the English National Ballet’s new bold and confident position. It’s an exquisitely drawn typeface that has the creative quirks and character to distinguish from other more clinical grotesque fonts. Its clean and contemporary feel also has a degree of neutrality which is key for future collaborative projects across a wide range of the arts to enhance the vision of the ENB being the UKs most creative company.”

Bruno Maag, Creative and Managing Director of Dalton Maag said: “The dancers must take center stage, and the stunning imagery makes this clear. Our Aktiv Grotesk font supports this ambition clearly and cleanly. The choice of a bolder weight is inspired, as it avoids the fashion trap of using very thin styles so often seen in brands related to fashion and art.”

The brand campaign was was shot on location in London, East Sussex and in Holborn Studios by Guy Farrow working with the Vivienne Westwood team. The dancers were choreographed by English National Ballet’s Associate Artist George Williamson.

The Vivienne Westwood collections were chosen specifically to emphasise the non-conventional but classical image. The couture garments used within each image were specially selected from both Vivienne Westwood’s extensive archive and paired with pieces from the latest Spring-Summer 2013 collections to continue the idea of mixing modernity with tradition. Both the clothes and the images created symbolise this feeling of British avant-garde and are seductive and elegant yet commanding. They reference historical dress and British culture, whilst most importantly celebrating the human form.

In Vivienne Westwood’s own words: “My clothes allow you to project your personality, and are theatrical in the sense that they are real clothes, well-designed, and they give you a chance to express yourself.”New weights of Aktiv Grotesk are being launched today to coincide with the font’s use in the English National Ballet campaign.

About Dalton Maag

Dalton Maag was founded in 1991, and designs high quality fonts and logos for its clients. With bases in London, Vienna, Hong Kong and Brazil, the company now employs 39 people from ten countries, and handles a wide variety of projects, many of them large and high profile. Dalton Maag’s international clients have included such big names as Nokia, Ubuntu, the FA Cup, Toyota and BMW. A speciality of the company is our expertise in non-Latin scripts, including Devanagari, Arabic, Cyrillic and Hebrew.

http://www.daltonmaag.com/

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Thanks to Thalia Teasdale | Dalton Maag for the images and information

One week intense type design & lettering workshop with Dalton Maag and Jonathan Pierini.

ISIA Urbino Type Design Week is a one week intense course which will take place the last week of July at ISIA (High Institute for Applied Arts), in the Renaissance city of Urbino in Italy.

For one week the students will be guided by proven professionals in the development of an individual type design/lettering project. An interesting programme of lectures will provide the participants with background information addressing discourses and techniques of type design and the design of letters as a critical design process.

Send us your cv and a short portfolio of your works in PDF format at info@isiaurbino.net before the 24th of June 2011.

http://isiaurbino.net

http://typeweek.isiaurbino.net/