Verso Architecture+Interiors by Studio South, New Zealand

Opinion by Richard Baird.

Verso is a small Auckland-based architecture and interiors business working within the residential and commercial sectors. Drawing on the oppositional nature of name and using a mix of simple typographical form, high-quality materials and a print finish that reflects light Studio South developed a new visual identity for Verso described as being both sophisticated and playful, and effectively utilises some universal architectural principles. This links a variety of printed assets that included stationery, business cards, notepad and signage.

Studio South’s work for Verso is a textbook architectural brand identity project in the themes it draws from and intends to express and resolve. Functionality, modernity, the structural, light, shade and the material are all touched upon. This can be felt in the reductive letterforms of Theinhardt, its typesetting, layout and finish across white, black and concrete grey uncoated papers and boards, as well as the use of grids and areas of space.

The themes and corresponding aesthetic expressions mentioned above are explored in a slightly more playful and distinctive way in the use of pattern; in its grid-based structure, the use of line weight and density to create geometric form. Animation then manages to work in a sense of flow while a glossy black block foil leverages, much like an interior space, light.

The name Verso—the reverse of an object—gives a bit more conceptual weight to some familiar aesthetic choices, with black and white boards and ink, unprinted space and pattern, and the glossy and the matt all having a sense of the oppositional to them. The result is reductive but well-intentioned, familiar yet with moments of distinction, and just enough in the way of the conceptual and visual to keep it interesting. More from Studio South on BP&O.

Design: Studio South. Opinion: Richard Baird. Fonts Used: Theinhardt.

What do you think of Studio South’s work for Verso? Share your thoughts in the comment section below or get the conversation started on Twitter.