The RCA asked Neville Brody, who made his name as art director of fashion magazines The Face and Arena and is now dean of communication at the college, to come up with a new identity for its buildings and press material.

Brody and his design office Research Studios worked with Henrik Kubel, a graphic designer who graduated from the RCA in 2000, to produce the Calvert Brody typeface as a "remixed" version of the college's house font Calvert.

The Calvert font is by Margaret Calvert, the graphic designer best known for creating the UK's road signage system in the 1960s and a former graphic design course director at the college.

"The idea is like bringing in a producer and doing a remix of music, so I remixed Margaret's font," Brody told Dezeen. "I've tried to make it both more classical by making it more exaggerated and thick and thin, and at the same time make it more industrial and contemporary, by bringing in the - hopefully interestingly - redrawn pieces plus the stencil."

Calvert Brody will be used throughout the college's buildings, either sprayed directly onto walls or laser-cut into metal, and will also appear in print and on screen.

"Hopefully we've come up with an interesting typeface that encapsulates a lot of different ideas about the Royal College, which is sort of robust but innovative; it's slightly non-traditional but at the same time giving a nod to a very traditional source," Brody added.

The designers were asked to reflect the college's history as well its current reputation for innovative design and fine art practice, said Octavia Reeve, the RCA's senior publishing manager, who led the rebrand with the designers.

Above: image shows how the font might be used on exterior metal signage

"The typography is key to this," she told Dezeen. "It’s a great message that three generations of RCA graphic designers have collaborated on this essential new element of the RCA’s identity," she added.

The font is currently on show as part of an exhibition at the college celebrating its 175th anniversary. The Perfect Place To Grow: 175 Years of the Royal College of Art runs until 3rd January at the RCA, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2EU.

The rest of the RCA's rebrand, also designed by Research Studios, launches on 1st January 2013.

Dezeen previously published a movie with Neville Brody for the Design Museum’s Super Contemporary exhibition, in which he talks about the people, places and cultures that have defined his life in London.

Writer and broadcaster Andrew Marr recently warned that the Royal College of Art will end up as a "Chinese finishing school" unless the UK government does more to encourage young people to study art and design.

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The post Calvert Brody typeface by Margaret Calvert,
Neville Brody and Henrik Kubel appeared first on Dezeen.

The studio had been working on several projects relating to architecture when they decided to try out "four-dimensional" typography.

The designers constructed the letters from pieces of white card.

When the letters are strung up, the reader can walk around and through words and read them from any direction.

The movie is by Marcel Batlle and Lander Larrañaga.

Photographs are by Lo Siento.

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Here's more text from the designers:

4D Typography is the result of the intersection in an orthogonal way in space of two extrusions of the same character, which allows the spectator to read it from two different positions in space at least.

An observer searching to enjoy a particular architecture is forced to move around and through it. The change in perspective generates new spaces in which light acts in different ways. In this case, it is the typography that makes the effort of abandoning its two dimensions to approach the architectural sense. It does not resign with a third dimension; a fourth one is necessary to complete the reading possibilities. By hanging the typography, the reader is allowed to surround the characters in order to understand all their shapes.

This idea started after Lo Siento carried out several identity projects regarding architecture. This was when the study decided to investigate and develop several volumetric languages starting from basic graphical concepts. One of these languages was 4D typography. It became a personal project from the studio and we decided to develop the whole alphabet. The creation of this alphabet and mistakes that were made during the creation process lead to new ideas for future projects.

Project name/title: 4D paper lettering
Year of work produced: 2011
Work type: Typography / Alphabet
Client: Losiento / self-initiated project
Art direction/Design: Gerard Miró / Lo Siento
Photography: Lo Siento
Work description: Four dimensional alphabet lettering made with paper. Each piece can be read from all 4 sides.

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by Lo Siento appeared first on Dezeen.