D&AD reveals collaborative co-design festival identity by Hato

D&AD has unveiled its 2018 festival identity, Start with a mark. The identity takes the form of a co-design drawing tool created by London-based graphic and experience design studio, Hato.

The collaborative visual identity is available on D&AD’s website inviting users to do anything from “a quick sketch, a handful of keywords or a mid-thought doodle,” says Hato. “The easy-to-use interface guides visitors through the process of creating dots, lines, and even words in 3D, catering for copywriters-come-concrete poets as well as the more visually minded.” Users also have options of brush size, type input and rotation so that you can draw three dimensionally and can also draw into everyday life using AR mode. Start with a mark “is built using Three.js, Firebase and Cloud Function,” explains Hato, creating a tool which “translates the trend of 3D or spatial drawing — currently very popular in VR and AR engines — to a web-based platform.” It is additionally available on both desktop and mobile browser, allowing “wider access to 3D digital drawing technologies”.

Once completed and submitted, each mark is then added to a collaborative gallery which already includes notable contributions from Steve Vranakis, Jordy van den Nieuwendijk, Carly Ayres and Pio Abad. A selection of artworks will then be used by Hato to help develop D&AD festival and its New Blood Awards creative collateral, including 3D animations, print, online and environmental graphics. The identity will also be pushed further as the second phase of the project will see Hato apply the sketches to augmented reality, “giving users the opportunity to project their work into their environment.”

Hato were set the brief of “stimulation not congratulation” by D&AD and as a result has created “its most comprehensive project to date”. The collaborative aspect of the identity sees the studio continuing its use of co-design projects, such as illustration festival Pick Me Up’s visual identity made of 3000 co-designed letters, and a recent catalogue for Bloomberg New Contemporaries which was created in collaboration with the 45 artists featured.

Tim Lindsay, D&AD’s CEO says: “Hato’s Start with a mark campaign is fun, engaging interactive and a symbol of the wonderful outcomes that creativity and craft unleash. We’re very proud that our community is, in effect, being invited to design their own festival.”

To also the mark the launch of a campaign “set to explore the unique, symbiotic relationship between creativity and culture,” D&AD announced the first line-up of speaker’s for its 2018 festival including Debbie Millman, Jeff Goodby and Lernert & Sander.

Start with a mark is available to try here.