IMPROVDESIGNTM

The state of Israel asked us to design a unique and attractive brand identity that will help convey the spirit of the innovative Startup Nation. Therefore, it was essential to begin this process through an original and appropriate angle. We soon realized that it is the people of Israel that make Israel special, and it should be the people who determine what the brand identity should be. This insight led us to develop an online application allowing any user to create a personal version of the logo with a predetermined set of shapes and colors created for this purpose. No two logos were alike, but together a strong and colorful, and coherent identity was formed.

Mekudeshet, Jerusalem Season of Art’s festival, is a two-week long event held in one of the most controversial and religiously sacred cities for Muslims, Jews, and Christians alike, Jerusalem.  The festival bridges the religions through the collaboration of 250 artists, speakers, and performers from 17 countries worldwide, and proves that the conflict can be resolved; even temporarily, through the expression of art and music. As former Jerusalemites, the challenges of designing the brand identity for Mekudeshet was close to our hearts, and we have been designing fresh brand  concepts for Mekudeshet annually from 2011. The concept of ‘The Border Dissolvers’ was conceived to describe the diverse artists and activitists who are active in different cultural fields, and who work towards changing the reality on the ground. Using creative graphic art and design techniques, we mapped the daily routes of these people, creating an original and unique design language to accompany the project and its numerous events.

TNX is a chain of retail kiosks that produces gifts 100% sold and manufactured by mentally challenged employees. The goal of this initiative is to help these individuals to be integrated into the community, to pursue their goals, and to live independently. The appropriate creative expression for such a unique brand should also come from the people who operate it. So, we asked the good people of TNX to visually express their personal feelings and thoughts about working at TNX through art. These creative expressions became the inspiration for designing a unique visual language that could have never been imagined otherwise and convey the true spirit of the brand.

In 2018, we created a fresh brand for Mekudeshet utilizing the Improv Design method. We embarked on a design journey- sleeping in various neighborhoods, eating the local food, photographing our interactions, recording sounds, and meeting with the diverse residents.  We then invented a design generator inspired by our experiences – presenting two pieces of information at random from the data we collected during the journey. Designers from Jerusalem’s differing districts and backgrounds were invited to a workshop, where the design generator presented a “random encounter” of data from the journey, and each designer was tasked with creating an image stimulated by this combination. The designs created by the participants helped to inspire the brand design of 2018.