DBL – Dedalo Building Lab

Dedalo Building Lab

TYPE

Logo Design, Brand Identity, Web Design, Type design

YEAR

2019

CLIENT

Dedalo Building Lab

WEBSITE

dedalobuildinglab.com

Dedalo Building Lab is a
multidisciplinary design lab born from a shared passion and vision of four friends.

I had the pleasure to design the branding and web design for my friends and (ex) university collegues Riccardo Bartali, Andrea Crudeli, Giulio Fazio and Leonardo Magursi, who decided to found an architecture and engineering firm in Florence.

I have always thought of us as a group of people, who through training and personal vocation, always managed to do something more than the average.

I've always seen us as them who want a little more, those who believe that sufficiency is not enough, that there is always a new project to start to test us and improve.

I see in DBL a striking example of this: despite the predictions of 20 of the greatest Tuscan architectural firms, they have decided to start something new and adventurous, something that we – as young architects and engineers – have been advised against almost in unison.

And I couldn't stop thinking of one of the most important ads in the last fifty years:

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes…

Surely you will have heard it.

I find this very powerful idea of the blocks that do not fit into the prepared hole, not because they are wrong, but because the rest is standardized, uniform, repetitive, banal.

And from the wooden blocks, from the idea of a construction laboratory - with all its craft, human and experimental meaning - the next conceptual leap was immediate ...

Simple, modular, democratic elements. A system of disarming flexibility and creativity, which allows with a few basic pieces to build whatever the imagination manages to bring to mind.

Dedalo Building Lab as a laboratory of ideas, where from simple but well thought out elements, with creativity and imagination, but above all knowledge and ability, anything can be achieved.

The brand came together (if not later) with an alphabet, a typeface that reflects these characteristics: simple, modular, economical, and flexible. Dedalo Builds (v.01) was born.

Rotating and composing D, B, L letters eventually I designed DBL's symbol and logo, with the typographic part in Founders Grotesk and corporate font in TT Norms by TypeType, and of course Dedalo Builds for display and fun use.

Next step was the webiste: a showcase for all DBL's projects, activities and ideas. A platform to show what they do and tell how and why – a portfolio to unveil the multidisciplinary and transversal capabilities of the team, ranging from architectural and engineering skills to movie direction, photography, BIM, exhibition design and... much more.

PS. the video cover is by DBL :)