Enter Arkitektur is a Swedish architectural practice with history going back to the 1950's. With two offices, one in the city of Jönköping and the other in Gothenburg, the company works on a variety of commissions ranging from housing projects to commercial buildings, all over Sweden.
With the practice expanding and undergoing a series of structural changes, it was clear that the then current visual identity did not properly represent what the company had grown to become. It was time to evaluate where the company were and, more importantly, where they were headed.
After an extensive period of strategical evaluation which, aside from the regular discussions with the primary stakeholders on the client's side, included surveys with employees and clients, we had outlined the prerequisites for the redesign of the identity. Over the years, the client had grown to like the arrow, which had been their brand mark for quite some time. As generic as it may have been, it was also a symbol that Enter's clients associated with them. Based on this insight, we explored possible ways of designing or incorporating an arrow in the identity. Being one of the world's most used symbols – we knew that it would prove a challenge to find a way of including an arrow that felt unique and exciting, and more importantly, said something about Enter, more than its correlation to the company's name.
Another conceptual leitmotif in the design process was Enter's long history and how they continually find ways of making use of the company's extensive experience in the projects they undertake. We quickly outlined two architectural typologies; a) history and heritage and b) contemporary architecture, that both bare equal importance to Enter. In a sense, Enter is today continuing to build upon the foundation that was established by their predecessors. While the choices that guide their design process are based on contemporary needs and ideas about architecture, they are also clearly guided and influenced by the wealth of knowledge and know-how that has been accumulated historically. With the conceptual groundwork in place, we designed a new brandmark that combines a capital 'E' for Enter with an arrowhead. In uniting these two elements, we also form the first architectural typology in the resulting negative space and the second in the new mark's outline. Through combining abstracted archetypes, we arrive at a simple and memorable brand mark that both relates to Enter's history and past and leads them into the future.
As a complement to the brandmark, we designed a wordmark that seeks to balance the bold and iconic appearance of its companion. The wordmark is available both with and without the descriptive 'architecture' supplement, which is available in several languages for different markets. The colour system was inspired by the gradually changing shades of sunlight on a white wall throughout the day. Corresponding papers from Fedrigoni's Sirio Colour range were selected and used for the stationery, which was printed and embossed by Göteborgstryckeriet.
Additionally, we designed a range of give-aways that were given to guests who attended the launch event for the new visual identity. This range included bespoke knitted scarves, patterned wrapping paper (with the launch coinciding with Christmas), silkscreened tote bags and a series of hand-bound notebooks. For the notebooks, we experimented with the heat and pressure settings of the embossing machine in order to achieve the speckled surface which, when embossed onto the grey book cloth of the covers, resembles concrete. The level of variation which came as a result of this very manual process also made sure that each of the 200 books had a unique look. The books were handmade by Flodstrands Bokbinderi in Gothenburg.
As part of the project, we also designed a range of digital presentation templates and designed and developed a new website. The website offers a straightforward manifestation of the new visual identity, in which the practice's projects are the main attraction. Displayed in an organised grid, built with the new CSS Grid standard, the projects are presented in levels. The two latest ones are in primary focus, followed by three rows of projects presented with smaller images. At the bottom of the page, a complete archive of the practice's work unfolds. In the Journal, the news posts are displayed in a similarly precise yet more comprehensive grid, and will grow to display the post's full texts upon hover, or click on touch-devices.
