Archtober 2014
The New York City festival enters its fourth year with a program of scalable graphics.
It's no wonder that October is one of our favorite months, what with the favorable weather, colorful leaves, and abounding Halloween candy. But this month is particularly special because it marks Archtober, the month-long annual festival of architecture and design in New York City. Now in its fourth year, Archtober highlights the city's most compelling architectural and design in a series of tours, discussions, exhibitions, and films sponsored by a number of collaborating institutions. Pentagram partner Luke Hayman and team have designed the identity and exhibition graphics for Archtober 2014, building on the designs the team has developed for the festival since 2011.
In honor of the fourth year of the festival, the design features an abstract number 4, loosely inspired by the grid-based paintings of Piet Mondrian. The "4" design can be adjusted to fit a variety of applications, such as window decals, banners, and subway ads, as well as an animated version of the identity.
The designers extended the concept of scalable graphics to the Archtober visitors lounge at the AIA's Center for Architecture in Greenwich Village, which serves as the home base for the festival and its activities. A large "4" frames the storefront window, inviting passersby to look inside the lounge. A yellow, door-sized panel leaning against the lounge wall displays the numerical date and a smaller leaning panel features one of Archtober's 31 Buildings of the Day.
In the past, the designers have created eye-catching supergraphic calendars that run the length of the visitors lounge. This year, the designers installed a series of small hanging cubes (yellow for the weekdays and orange for the weekends) that hold postcards printed with the date in large type. When the card is pulled out of the cube, the schedule for the day is revealed, with the Building of the Day on the reverse side.
The lounge is currently open at the Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place in New York. For more information on the festival and featured architecture, visit the Archtober website.
