SPECTRUM IDENTITY

There was furore in the furniture world when Spectrum was launched some three years ago. But the design-led firms were adamant in their view that their needs weren’t being served by the UK’s former furniture showcase IDI – now reincarnated within next month’s Interbuild exhibition in Birmingham. So adamant that, at the instigation of furniture designer David Field, they opted to go it alone and set up a new annual show at the Royal College of Art in London.

Next April that event – Spectrum – has its fourth showing, bringing together some 50 furniture, flooring and lighting companies at the top end of the design scale. And to promote the exhibition it has brought in consultancy Grundy & Northedge to create an identity.

According to Peter Grundy, he and his partner Tilly Northedge were first approached by Field a year ago, but the job began in earnest some four weeks back. The duo, known for their ‘crafted’ images, were asked to devise ‘a graphic visual image that was memorable and could evolve’.

The result is described by Grundy as ‘a drawing system’. The abstract chair device used this year could become a table or a lamp next, he says. The ‘playful’ idea comes from the joints and extrusions used in furniture-making, and these could even be reconfigured for this year’s campaign. Colours too can change from year to year, but they will remain solid.

Type set in Futura completes the identity for fliers, leaflets, tickets and stationery.

According to Grundy, so taken is the Spectrum committee with the poster seen here that it is likely to be available, silk-screened as a limited edition, to visitors to next year’s show.