Description

This site for a large architect’s studio takes the sans serif typeface developed as part of the house style for DaimlerChrysler in the late 1980s, Corporate ASE. The family comprises three components: Corporate A (Antiqua) is the serif typeface; S is Sans; and E stands for Egyptian, the slab serif face that completes the trilogy.

If the suspicion that corporate institutions are somewhat characterless remains hard to shake off, then Corporate ASE won’t be the typeface to revolutionise corporate identity design. But it has a very specific function, which it fulfils; to be an impartial, objective conveyor of a large business’ message. A touch narrower than comparable typefaces such DIN or Frutiger that might be chosen to perform a similar function, there are elements of humanism to its stroke contrast and it doesn’t have as overt a mechanical character.

In the case of Deborah Berke Partners, Corporate S acts very much as a secondary visual component in their design palette, behind their project photography and visualisations and a coherent, robust grid.

Even if the typeface resides in the background, typographically the layout makes bold use of space, confidently trusting that the subtle, understated character of Corporate S doesn’t need to perform an expressive role. The bulk of the typographic effort has been put into creating a robust grid layout that, through consistent placement of typographic elements, creates an organisational hierarchy for the text that persists through different screen dimensions.