Holographik built a scalable identity for Open Works on a tight timeline

When Holographik received an open brief from Zagreb Design Week to develop a cultural programme inside their own venue, the starting point was straightforward – create seven days of programming that would introduce designers, studios, architects and artists to their space. What emerged was Open Works, a platform built around accessibility and collaboration, where the identity needed to work as hard as the programming itself. The challenge wasn’t conceptual complexity. It was logistical reality. A week-long event spanning talks, workshops, screenings and performances across multiple disciplines demanded an identity system that could be deployed rapidly, scaled infinitely, and still maintain coherence across an intimidating range of applications. “Given the time-sensitive nature of the project, we needed to establish a system that was both immediate and enduring,” Founder Hrvoje Grubisic explains. “Our approach was to strip the design down to its essentials, creating a typographic framework that could be rapidly deployed, easily scaled, and still maintain a sense of expression.” The solution arrived through deliberate constraint. Helvetica, set exclusively in all caps. For a cultural festival – a context that typically invites experimentation and visual spectacle – the choice reads as almost provocative in its restraint. But that precision was exactly the point. “While it might be seen as a classic or even expected choice, that was precisely the point,” Grubisic notes. “Its neutrality and precision allowed us to build a system rooted in clarity and scalability.” The consistent cap height created a graphic uniformity that could absorb large volumes of information without losing impact, while the typeface’s authority ensured legibility at every scale, from tote bags to building-scale environmental graphics.