Proxectar, a brand new design occasion, is reshaping the artistic panorama of northern Spain by bringing worldwide design voices to Nigrán, a small coastal city in Galicia.
By the way, the city is best recognized for its red-and-white tiled promenade than for international conferences, however HONDO’s visible identification for the programme has helped native expertise get enthusiastic about behind-the-scenes conversations about craft, methodology, and the realities of design work.
The occasion was the brainchild of Andrés Fraga and welcomed visitors, together with John Marshall of Pentagram, designer Tomás Alonso, ceramicist Paula Ojea, and representatives from Estar and the College of Vigo. For a lot of native attendees, it presents entry to conversations that hardly ever attain the area.
HONDO anchored the whole system to the distinctive tiled sample of Nigrán’s promenade, treating a well-known civic texture as a conceptual anchor. “Utilizing that sample allowed us to root the identification in one thing unmistakably from Nigrán, giving native audiences a direct sense of familiarity and belonging,” says Fran Méndez, HONDO co-founder and artistic director.
Whereas it could be an on a regular basis motif, right here it turns into a modular graphic framework that may shift in scale and rhythm. HONDO has made it really feel up to date with out shedding the heat of its supply.
The studio additionally turned to the area’s typographic heritage for inspiration. The logotype attracts from 14th-century Galician engraved lettering and the work of Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao, a key cultural determine whose typographic experiments have formed Galician visible tradition.
Fran explains that it was necessary “that Proxectar’s visible identification felt genuinely rooted in Galicia, not simply geographically, however culturally and linguistically.” The staff additionally studied the unique sources behind Castelao’s influences, together with inscriptions at San Pedro de Rocas in Ourense, permitting them to create a logotype that nods to the previous with out changing into an imitation.
HONDO additionally consciously resisted the everyday blues related to the area and launched pink as a main color as an alternative. It creates a assured break from expectation, lifting the identification out of the standard coastal palette.
“This shift away from the traditional blue created an sudden and daring distinction,” Fran says, positioning the model as each grounded and forward-looking.
As a result of the occasion centres on the craft behind design, the studio additionally embedded refined references to industrial course of. A monospace typeface seems all through, lending the identification a structural, virtually mechanical edge. Its tone is intentionally uncooked in locations, echoing the honesty of the occasion’s conversations.
Though Proxectar is small in scale, its ambitions will not be. HONDO performed analysis on the area earlier than designing, guaranteeing the identification would resonate domestically whereas positioning Nigrán throughout the broader design dialog.
“Our objective was to craft a worldwide model identification that speaks past the normal Spanish design hubs,” Fran notes.
Maybe fittingly for a undertaking rooted in group, Fran describes its collaborative nature because the element he’s proudest of. Working alongside kind designer Nancho from Finest Typefaces helped refine the logotype, whereas supporting Andrés’s imaginative and prescient gave the staff a way of function.
“For us, that blend of native focus, huge ambitions, and teamwork is the a part of the identification system we’re most pleased with,” he says.
Proxectar could also be at first of its journey, however HONDO’s identification provides the occasion a transparent voice, grounded as a substitute of origin and able to be a part of a wider dialogue.
