Leeds based design agency, Passport, designed the much acclaimed brand identity for The Hepworth Prize for Sculpture. The biennial award is awarded to any British or UK-based artist, of any age, at any stage in their career, who has made a significant contribution to the development of contemporary sculpture. The award returned for its second instalment in 2018 and The Hepworth asked Passport to be involved again.
Passport’s original branding for 2016 was based on the idea that it could be ‘pulled apart and reassembled for each year of the Prize.’ For the second year, they completely renewed the visuals, using the angles within the logo. Passport have used the 2D campaign assets and given the impression of three dimensions, by representing folds and depth in the format of the branding pieces, such as flyers, billboards and brochures.
They’ve used a strong, bold colour palette, using contrasting colour pairings that work together perfectly. The confetti style imagery adds to the celebratory tone of voice. We love the use of black backgrounds to help draw attention to the 3D folded elements on the marketing pieces which bring the identity to life, putting at the forefront the accessibility and closeness of the competition. This is also a kind of graphical sculpture, the assets aping the 3D nature of sculpture in a 2D space. These pieces included; nationwide digital, print and outdoor marketing campaign, invitations, promotional materials, indoor & outdoor exhibition way-finding & signage, gallery interpretation guide, leaflets, flyers, social media content, assets for film, tote bags and gift shop merchandise. We’d especially love one of those colourful tote bags.
The second Hepworth Prize for Sculpture was awarded to Cerith Wyn Evans at an award dinner at The Hepworth Wakefield on Thursday 15 November.
The other shortlisted artists were Michael Dean, Mona Hatoum, Phillip Lai and Magali Reus. Presenting new and recent work, each of the artists demonstrated a singular voice that pushed the potential of the sculptural object in new directions. Exhibition photography by Helena Dolby.
An all-round beautiful identity which works perfectly in The Hepworth. We are already looking forward to the ident for 2020. See more from Passport here.
