“In conjunction with our design and development of jamesmoney.com.au, Studio Constantine has been working with artist James Money, on the development of a personal brand marque and suite of identity materials.
“The marque needed to be sufficiently robust to work across a number of formats and media; from the screen, to exhibition signage and collateral, to catalogues and stationery. It was vital that the marque relate directly to James’ existing seal of ownership and authenticity over his work, his signature. The application to identity suite needed to be equally utilitarian, making use of cost effective and readily available materials.
“We started by singling out ‘Money’, as a device to reference, rather than replicate James’ original signature. Placing the signature on a rule grounded the form and created a bridge between the main elements of the design. The formal name and title were set in Neal Fletcher‘s Elega typeface, both geometric and contemporary. Our primary focus was to maintain the sense of a singular weight, unifying contrasting elements.
“It became clear early in discussions that a high volume of traditionally printed stationery was not going to be economical or practical for James. It occurred to us that rubber stamps would offer the flexibility to not only create low volume and constantly evolving stationery, but also to label wrapped artworks, materials and anything that circumstance may demand, in an extremely cost-effective manner. Further, each article would be subtly unique.
“We did not want these to be just any rubber stamps, they had to be both functional and beautiful. Studio Constantine worked with Joe Chester from Treehorn Design, who crafted the wooden stamp mounts with love and care; each getting its own coat of citrus scented wax.
“The stationery items were all sourced from an office supplies store, economical and available in small quantities. The oversize business cards are in fact ‘flash cards’ originally intended for classroom use. These ultra-saturated, textured beauties are toned back by a more sober grey letterhead.”
Designed by Studio Constantine