The second graphic designer I decided to do some research on for our contextual research is Pentagram.

Pentagram is an individually-owned, multi-disciplinary design company. Their 24 partners are mainly based in London and New York along with one in Austin and another in Berlin. All 24 partners are practicing designers and all the work they do, whether independently or collaboratively, they do so in friendship. They also have several associates as well.

The structure of Pentagram is unique as the owners of the company serve as the primary contact for clients as well as creators of the work that’s produced by the company. They’re the only major design company that works this way. This way of working reflects the company’s confidence in that great design can’t happen without intelligence, passion and personal commitment which is especially portrayed by their portfolio that covers 5 decades of work with industries and clients of all sizes.

One of their more recent projects was for The Public Theater in New York. They were tasked with designing their typographic posters for Publics 2020-2021 season as the festival for 2020 was cancelled due to Covid. The posters have always included different variations of typography each season; from outlined, slashed and slanted to inlined, stretched and skewed. One variation that hadn’t been used surprisingly was stencilled which is the variation that Pentagram ended up using in creating the posters.