Faber
Moving the dial of culture
Faber is Britain’s most distinguished independent publisher. Famous for modernist work by authors like Eliot and Beckett, Faber continues to publish ground-breaking books by prize winning authors from Anna Burns to Sally Rooney. Alongside publishing, Faber runs an innovative writing academy, and a fast-growing membership club. In 2019, Faber wanted to sustain its current success into the future by strengthening its brand – encouraging audiences to understand what Faber is about, buy from Faber, spread the word, and keep coming back.
Words change things
Having worked with Faber to define its purpose – to ‘move the dial of culture’ – we now started to translate this idea into a design philosophy, ‘always new’, inspired by the publishing house’s disruptive tradition. We collaborated with type experts Colophon to modernise Faber’s famous ‘ff’ symbol and to create a new wordmark, based on the radical designs of iconic typographer and book jacket designer Berthold Wolpe. We introduced a slogan, ‘Words change things’, to help people understand what Faber stands for. And we recommended that initiatives such as Faber Academy and Faber Members should move closer to the core brand, so that they can all benefit from each other. Through the whole process, we worked with Faber’s leadership team to adopt, shape and champion the change – and suggested ideas for new ventures that could give the organisation an even broader impact.
Always new
The project has already given people in Faber a new sense of identity and energy – and an appetite to build the Faber brand, alongside promoting its authors and their books. The new identity launched at the company’s spring party in February 2020.
