ShopAround by Design by Toko, Australia

Opinion by Richard Baird.

ShopAround is described as a creative supermarket, however, in more conventional terms began as an artist representation agency in 1998. It has grown, since then, to become a creative production agency specialising in contemporary illustration, graphic design, animation, motion graphics and interactive design. ShopAround co-ordinates a network of over 80 international freelance designers from its offices in New York, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, as well as fostering new talent.

ShopAround worked with Sydney-based Design by Toko on a new visual identity. This appropriates the visual vernacular associated with independent supermarkets and small gift shops. Colour and shapes form the basis of identity, with a referential quality that is playful, distinctive in its new context and proportionality, and links business cards, stickers and tote bags, with an updated website soon to follow.

Design by Toko take shapes defined by a mechanical labelling process, an intentionally garish (but functional) high contrast colour palette, and the utility of a monospaced typeface and place these within a context in which to represent a service and process that is far from the mechanical, where shape, colour and type is more that just a product of usefulness, high contrast and a legibility. In this appropriation, subversion and calling up, the ubiquitous becomes the distinctive and unique. More work by Toko on BP&O.

Design: Designed by Toko. Opinion: Richard Baird. Fonts Used: TBC.

What do you think of Design by Toko’s brand identity for ShopAround? Share your thoughts in the comment section below or get the conversation started on Twitter.