Mother Design channels Zaha Hadid Architects' aesthetic with identity for its first permanent NY building

Mother Design, a creative team within advertising agency Mother, has created an identity and range of marketing material for Zaha Hadid Architects’ (ZHA) new luxury development in New York, 520 West 28th. The project – which included a graphic identity, residence book, business cards, floorplans, monograph, website and sales experience – is conceived like “a gallery selling artwork” says the team, wherein the architect and her work are the hero.

The monochromatic palette references the architect’s process of building stark white paper sculptures at the start of each project to study form and light. The monograph’s cover is entirely white, using subtle embossing and debossing techniques to depict the logotype and shapes drawn from the architecture, using shadows and shapes much like Hadid’s paper sculptures. Similarly, as the user scrolls through the teaser website light travels across the building from left to right.

The book is primarily printed on uncoated paper with a mixture of foiling, varnishing and guilded edges. The cross bars of the logomark are aligned to subtly reference The High Line, says the design team. 

This is Hadid’s first permanent building in New York, consisting of 39 luxury residential properties in Chelsea. According to Mother, the development is aimed at people looking to invest in real estate as well as a world-renowned artist, so the identity is designed to be “artistic, progressive and luxurious.” It hopes to herald the work of the architect, who passed away earlier this year.