The Edit: five projects including Pentagram’s shifting identity for Williamstown Theatre Festival

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. Designed by Pentagram partner Andrea Trabucco-Campos and his team, the identity for Williamstown Theatre Festival – one of the most prestigious performing arts events in the US – centres around a bold visual metaphor of space and perspective. Taking centre stage is, well, an abstracted stage! Constructed from connecting lines and squares, these elements can be built, deconstructed, and manipulated in various ways, adapting to the content while embodying the transformative nature of live theatre. Inspired by this angular, shifting stagecraft, the wordmark features custom letterforms with geometric cuts and angles, reinforced by the pairing of Times New Roman with Commercial Type’s Review, which creates a dialogue between classical and contemporary forms. The combination achieves a perfect balance of heritage and innovation that speaks to both the Festival’s storied history and its forward-looking vision. Crafted in collaboration with Other Means and type designer Kia Tasbihgou, the third instalment of Figma’s Config magazine explores the theme of craft and the concept of craft as technical mastery. Acknowledging the tradition-based roots of craft, the team, through the publication’s art and design direction, reimagines design elements such as drop caps, fleurons, and decorative borders through a contemporary lens. In this way, the intricacies of stitches and fibres, as well as quilt design patterns, share parallels with the grid-based systems of pixels and screens. Drawing inspiration from the drop caps featured in the book, the team expanded and designed a complete alphabet of characters, available for free.