Do Not Design uses illustration to create approachable branding for Singapore’s Archifest

Singapore-based studio Do Not Design produces broad ranging graphic design. From ideas for brands to designing a website or a publication, its ability to mould to the brief at hand means the studio’s work can be found all over the globe, online or in person.

Founded by Yanda in 2009, Do Not Design has gone from strength to strength over its eight year life time. A particular favourite project of ours is the studio’s recent identity for Archifest, an annual festival Singapore in celebration of the city’s architectural landscape.

Each year the identity “establishes a consistent visual language spanning across all applications, allowing any image or illustration to work alongside seamlessly,” Yanda explains. However there is one consistent each year, the brand colour must be orange or white. Rather than follow in the footsteps of its design predecessors, Do Not Design toned down the orange to an almost pastel-like colour, “used to compliment the campaign visuals”. The identity saw the studio use all its design tools, creating public posters, festival newsprint, websites and marketing content for social media platforms.

Do Not Design’s brief for the campaign was to gain attention from the general public. “Architectural festival identities are often deemed serious to the public,” says Yanda. In turn, the studio took on the approach to make something friendly, accessible, something “that people can be part of”. It does this by utilising illustration “to make the campaign less commercial and more art, something people will find more refreshing,” he explains. “The visuals draw references from art, in particular David Hockney’s colourful impressionism. The colours are derived as expressive, distinctive and complimentary, yet it is still in the family of the corporate colour — orange.

As a result, the muted colour palette of the identity creates a nice illustrational moment of pause among other loud identities. By illustrating references from architectural drawings it still grabs the attention of those interested in the field, but its accessible approach allows the festival to appeal to anyone else from the creative industries too.