The Edit: five projects including Little Troop’s brand for Nik Bentel Studio that fits like a glove

Each and every day, we’re lucky to discover dozens of interesting and inspiring projects from around the world. From global identities and campaigns to side projects and independently published books, The Edit is home to five of them; every two weeks. “We wanted to create a mascot that could exist in both 2D and 3D forms – both super reduced like a pictogram, to fulfil the needs of a classic logo, but that could also come to life and be inflated, to reference the ‘larger than life’ feel of NIK’s projects,” says Little Troop’s Creative Director Noemie Le Coz about their take on the identity of NIK (also called Nik Bentel Studio), a New York-based studio that creates limited-edition, performative art objects. Making products like the ‘Capitalism Knife’ and ‘The Pasta Bag,’ the NIK team sees itself as ‘visual comedians,’ and it was important for the brand’s inherent sense of humour and irreverence to shine through in its identity. The result? A cherubic mascot and an adaptable wordmark that “works across any type of product – both high and low, serious and playful,” adds Creative Director Jeremy Elliot. The 3D, squishy forms of the wordmark and the mascot take cues from claymation characters of the yore, and elsewhere, the typography and colour palette references vintage Italian ephemera, nodding to founder Nik Bentel’s heritage. While animation punches character into the brand, the type treatment and art direction reins in the visual chaos, resulting in a fitting, un-precious brand for NIK that never takes itself too seriously. With almost 10 million paid subscribers, music streaming service Deezer has been delighting fans since 2007. With a strategic shift that led them towards a renewed brand purpose to help people ‘be and belong through music,’ the platform turned to brand and digital design studio Koto to give its identity a makeover to match its intent and vision. Music, naturally, steered the visual direction, resulting in a beating heart that became the centrepiece of the new identity, nodding to the idea that music is the ‘beating heart of life.’ “This motif permeates every aspect of the rebrand, from the redesigned logo to typography, colours, and a design system rooted in the versatility of beats,” Creative Director Joe Ling tells us. The heart, when set in motion, takes over Deezer’s world, turning into illustrative elements that capture the rhythm of beats or the energy of a certain genre, and is even turned into containers to hold images and text. The malleability of the logo is also echoed in the versatility of the custom brand typeface Deezer SANS, designed in collaboration with Luke Prowse of NaN Type Foundry. With multiple cuts that allow the typeface to speak boldly or softly – depending on the needs of a specific context – the type treatment is locked in a beautiful marriage with the graphic voice of the brand.