Graphic Design: Blok Design create four different wordmarks for Mexican cultural agency

In any identity project, designers must also be soothsayers and try to think about how their work will be used (and maybe abused) out in the real world. So when multidisciplinary studio Blok Design was asked to come up with a look and feel for a Mexican cultural organisation they tried to work a few steps ahead.

Laboratorio Para La Ciudad was set up by the Mexico City authorities to “cultivate and elevate the city’s creativity and innovation.” Blok (who have an office in the city as well as their Toronto base) knew that official names often get appropriated and modified by locals so they decided to create four different versions of the wordmark.

“The identity has a fluidity and elasticity that speaks to the experimental nature of LPLC’s work,” the designers say. “A governmental-type stamp, reinterpreted through a contemporary lens, lends the brand the officious air of a bureau approving the bold experiments at play.”