THE CHALLENGE: Create the visual identity for a brand new publishing house in Bucharest, focused on  the new contemporary titles dealing with social issues.

THE CONTEXT: Black Button Books is a start-up publishing house in Bucharest, set up by three passionate editors who wanted to introduce in the Romanian bookshops strong topics like feminism, gender equality or minorities' rights. The project needed a powerful name and a visual identity that could stand out and become a prominent symbol in the crowded publishing market. 

THE CONCEPT: I came up with the name BLACK BUTTON BOOKS, inspired by my personal necessity to find small elements that have the capacity to become symbols in multiple contexts.

I wanted to create a simple, yet refined brand, by using a small object, borrowed from the tailoring industry with its fascinating craftsmanship principles.

I opted to fully stylise all the graphic elements and create a familiar, emoji-like logomark, representing both a three-hole black button and a shocked/surprised face. It is the synthesis of Edvard Munch's Scream, applied to books that leave a disruptive intellectual imprint after being read.

The logomark was designed to be easily applied on multiple supports, from paper, to plastic and fabric. It is a functional social media icon, that can be very visible both on square or circle format. On the promotional materials, the button is used as an emoji face for a male or female character, identified as the Alpha BBB Reader.

The logotype uses the Futura Light font, for its perfectly round "O" that fits the emoji button, but also for its clean and elegant structure. The logo has two main versions: the main logo (positive) and the wireframe logo (used both as positive and negative). In order to keep the conceptual "black" effect, the negative version was avoided. 

Stationery