From MARKS, Firmalt, and Afterhours

An extra colorful serving of projects this week, with work from Geneva, Nuevo Leon, and London.

Rendez-vous des créateurs 2014 by Marks

Taking place this past September in Geneva, Rendez-vous des créateurs was an of expo for graphic designers with various specialty printers, binders, and paper wholesalers, that had an amazingly groovy identity designed by local firm MARKS. The seemingly abstract patterns — if I understand this correctly — are onomatopoeias for printing sounds. Hard to read but I do think they are there. Regardless of the debatable sound a Heidelberg offset printer makes, the wobbly stripes and extra colorful applications have a great, graphic joy to them, whether on a poster, coaster, or bottle. See full project

Las Naciones by Firmalt

Located in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, Las Naciones is a fast casual restaurant offering salads, sandwiches, and a pot pie kind of thing. Taking its cue from the name, "The Nations", local firm Firmalt created a pattern of abstract flags and a flag-waving logo that support a super clean aesthetic that has been nicely deployed in a single color. I'm not a huge fan of the logo but I love all the rest, specially the clashes of pattern and solid block of color that meet in the middle of the boxes. See full project.

Jay Bennett by Afterhours

High-end design this is not. But fun and authentic as hell it is. Jay Bennett is an electrician in Cornwall, UK, who has made a specialty working music-related jobs at venues or events. He needed a budget-friendly promo. London-based Afterhours set JB with a range of matchboxes that feature three awesome things: a lightning bolt, blackletter, and a pun. It's the Spinal Tap of low-budget identities. It's fun, clever, and memorable. See full project here.