Mark Porter

The environmental graphics in the Guardian’s new offices are mostly in place now.

Cartlidge Levene have done a very nice job for us on the signage and wayfinding. Some oversized graphics painted on walls and vinyls applied to glass add a bit of drama, and there are some very cute directional signs screen-printed on cardboard, which feels very much in tune with the building’s low-impact environmental credentials.

It’s fascinating to see how typefaces and a colour sensibility which were developed for a newspaper design project can be applied to an architectural environment, and I think the results are very successful.

And of course there’s a digital element too (though sadly not interactive, as yet). A bank of plasma screens in the entrance lobby on York Way will display slideshows of still images from our production system, and a smaller bank on reception level will show headlines from the guardian.co.uk feeds, stills and video from the site, and live site stats (pic above shows dummy content).

It has been a fascinating project for me. as I’ve seen the environmental design (as much as we can control it) become another expression of the Guardian’s visual identity. It started with the newspaper redesign; another dimension was added when Weiden + Kennedy created an advertising language which was based on graphic elements from the editorial project. Then guardian.co.uk got a redesign which brought the same graphic approach to the web (well kind of… within the constraints of usability and accessibilty). And now even the building we work in has become another expression of the brand.

Media companies like the Guardian are increasingly distributed, publishing in more & more different channels, and a coherent visual identity is essential in this world. So far, we’re doing pretty well. The real challenge comes as our content start to take on a life beyond our domain, out in the cloud where we have no control over its appearance. But at least the office will always feel like home…