Squarespace has long called New York City home, and the brand and design team wanted to find a way to make New York a bigger part of a refreshed identity. States Chief Creative Officer David Lee: “We’re proud that we’re not some Silicon Valley transplant that just has opened up a satellite office over here.” New York is a study in movement and since much of Squarespace’s output is interactive and screen based, the design team developed a kinetic identity system that gives dimension to their name and reinforces the two syllables in Squarespace.
Much of the image-making is handled by a generative system that introduces happy accidents and unexpected collisions into the compositions. Squarespace also worked with DIA Studio, Francois Rappo, and Geneva-based type foundry, Optimo to create Clarkson: a typeface, inspired in part by subway signage, that balances the clarity and sophistication of a sans serif with the edge formed by thoughtfully cutting the letterforms.
Says Mitch Paone, Creative Director at DIA, “This system allows designers to improvise and create infinite variations while always maintaining a consistent visual thread.”
