For the many: ANTI’s rigorous, generative identity system for Forskningsrådet unites 38 sub-brands

Facilitating impactful partnerships between scientists and businesses alike, Norway’s Research Council (Forskningsrådet) champions progress; looking to inspire and enact real, thoughtful change. The institute, however, required an aesthetic, strategic and structural shakeup – with 38 sub-brands to its name – turning to Oslo and Hamar-based studio ANTI to achieve as much. “The Research Council was previously perceived as fragmented and not visible to some audiences,” Designer Markus Storsveen, Senior Designer Veronika Artiuschenko and Design Director Kristoffer Eidsnes tell us. “The fact that they lacked a unified platform to communicate their mission and function clearly,” they add, “even caused certain misunderstandings regarding the organisation’s work and value,” a critique that went on to found the basis of ANTI’s design concept. “Essentially, they’re creating efficient and meaningful connections,” Storsveen, Artiuschenko and Eidsnes detail, “connections enable change, as we formulated it in our design concept.” To translate their concept whilst unifying the dozens of brands under The Research Council’s belt, ANTI turned to a generative approach when crafting its brand, resulting in a connection-making system inspired by the mathematic feature, Dubins path. “This formula describes the shortest curve to connect two points,” the trio recall, encouraging them to create the generator produced in partnership with TRYApt. “The generator uses a default 4x4 grid,” Storsveen, Artiuschenko, and Eidsnes explain, “with each grid point representing an area in which the Research Council works.”