Biannually, the British Fashion Council exhibits the very best in British fashion to an international audience. London Fashion Week and London Fashion Week Men’s offer the industry a look at upcoming women’s and menswear collections, while London Fashion Week Festival provides the general public with a unique shopping experience. Held twice a year at The Store X, 180 Strand, the events are among the highest profile of their kind.
Pentagram has created the visual identities for the high-profile fashion events for the third consecutive time. An interchanging, typographic grid-system was used to create a linking graphic system in order to tie the series together. The work expanded on the ideas explored during Autumn/Winter 2018, with the theme of ‘Discovery’ again at its core.
Designed with animation and digital environments in mind, the identities were brought to life on screens, wayfinding systems and banners that dominated the event space.
For London Fashion Week Men’s, Pentagram asked participating designers to submit an object that inspired the creation of their latest collection. In collaboration with the British Fashion Council, a number of these items were selected to feature in the main campaign. Ranging from a small Snoopy figurine to a vintage smoke grenade, these selected objects demonstrate that inspiration can come from anywhere, or anything.
Photogrammetry was used to take 3D scans of the objects, to once again link back to the ever-growing presence of technology in the fashion industry. The resulting imagery was used throughout the identity, event space and promotional collateral in the form of 3D visuals, motion design and a 2-metre wide resin-coated, polystyrene Buddha.
Animated to ethereally float through space, the objects interacted and collided with the overlaid typographic grid-system, which was built using contemporary Adieu typeface (Good Type Foundry). Pentagram assigned an uncommon materiality to each object – often contradictory to its natural state – to create unpredictable movements and reactions, which reflect the often-unexpected origins of creativity.
Fashion imagery took centre stage during London Fashion Week, where a collage-aesthetic was used to convey the diversity of the participating designers. Various animations were created from a layering technique, with repeated images panning and overlapping across a 3D perspective. The images interacted and collided with the overlaid typographic grid-system, this time built using the classic serif Louize Display typeface.
The layered, collage effect was recreated throughout the event space by printing large-scale imagery on translucent fabric. Large-scale collages were also printed on vinyl, along with large typographic directional signage.
To close the season, London Fashion Week Festival’s identity ties in the same graphic language and typography as the womenswear showcase, which injects a contemporary couture aesthetic to the consumer-facing festival. A suite of behind-the-scenes imagery was integrated into the festival’s visuals, to provide the identity with both an aspirational and inclusive feel.
Pentagram designed collateral such as bespoke invites, event passes and information guides. These where in line with the British Fashion Council’s #PositiveFashion initiative, which placed an emphasis on digital production.
