Tick tock! newkid’s time-sensitive identity for 1HOUR–AFTER promotes the skincare brand’s urgency

Marking the company’s first in-house brand after 30 years of business, Petra Soap saw a market in post-workout skin and body care, subsequently launching 1HOUR-AFTER (1HR-A) in collaboration with Torontonian branding studio newkid, who led the project’s visual output. Responding to the time-sensitive nature of the product line – whereby its toiletries are optimised to support one’s hair and skin in their most tender state – newkid turned to temporal cues across the brand, creating systems and graphic structures based on countdowns, clocks and timings. The result is a palpable yet refined sense of urgency, whereby the theme of activity and, ultimately, urgency, is tonally brought front and centre – a notion even addressed in the pressing nature of the brand name, the high-visibility orange hues, and the countdown-esque line system throughout the packaging and printed materials. Again referencing the clock-ready influences behind the brand, as well as the expert technical nature of 1HR-A’s offering, newkid opted for the monospace sans serif Mono Spec, from Halbfett Type Foundry, as the hero typeface; bringing with it the extensive family’s industrial edge. “The individual characters of this mono-style share a common width,” ​​Co-founder, Art Director & Designer Rich Brown tells us, “that help support the rhythmic feeling of the horizontal line system.”