Bold type for bold ideas: Stanford, Yale and Sheffield academics reimagine business models for a fairer world.
Sadly, recent world events – especially Covid, have exposed much of what’s unfair in the world. However, wherever there are injustices there are often individuals and collectives dedicated to flagging the wrongs and fighting for rights.
Re:Structure Lab is an international collaborative project between three of the world’s leading universities: Sheffield, Stanford and Yale. The aim of the project is to identify problems with existing business models, supply chains and legislation that often lead to forced labour and the exploitation of workers.
Using the latest academic research to inform implementable solutions, the project team are working to deliver six distinct policy briefings in order to influence current global debate and catalyse meaningful change. Earlier this year, they asked us on-board as a creative partner, to help shape their name and key messages first and foremost, and then translate their briefings into accessible, impactful and engaging documents. They also asked us to deliver a simple website that could act as a repository for the briefings and facilitate their distribution across political and business spheres.
We quickly understood that the briefings would go to those at the highest levels of government and business, especially in the UK and USA, so the primary audience would likely be time poor. To this end, we needed to ensure that salient points were delivered in an accessible and unambiguous way, without any loss of detail. To achieve this, we leant on a simple, structured grid system, pairing it with a strong typographic hierarchy to create an easily navigable document. We opted for ‘Inter’ as our sole typeface, both for its tall X-height and good legibility. A palette of six interchangeable, bold colours allows each briefing its own distinct look, while tying them together as a coherent series. The offsetting of the briefing titles on each of the front covers acts as a visual metaphor for the dynamic reshaping of business models and supply chains that the project seeks to empower. Altogether, the aesthetic is formal and sophisticated, yet engaging, making it suitable for its application and delivering the content in a clear, consistent way.
Cafeteria works flexibly on a broad range of projects across a wide range of sectors, but one thing we’ve learnt is common to them all is that there’s always more to a project than just the brief. The Re:Structure Lab policy briefings are no different. More than just nice typography and a functional grid system, the documents seek to influence and inform debate and spark change where change is needed most; for the marginalised, the exploited and the voiceless. Working closely across continents with the Re:Structure Lab team has been a real honour and privilege.
Periodically released throughout 2021, you can download the first two briefings in the series here.
