Writer, Lecturer, and Medievalist Dana Cushing approached Starship to create an identity for her business, Antimony Media. After developing a brand strategy, we set out researching imagery and symbolism of her subject — medieval art and culture, especially of the Crusades and 12th Century. There was quite a lot to digest, this era not only brought variety of art to Europe from the Middle East and Africa, but saw experimentation in the areas of science/alchemy, architecture, religion, and military technology. Combine this with the mythology of the age, and there’s plenty to get lost with.

The challenge here was in how to create a modern brand identity that references the old, without mocking it. We didn’t want a pastiche of the middle ages. We didn’t want something that looks like a publisher of Tolkien fan fiction, or the organisers of Renaissance Faires. The result identity is taken from a cathedral’s arch, simultaneously serving as an A letterform. Simple. The typography for “Antimony Media” is custom-built, using the same curves as the arch itself. Neutra Text is the brand’s main typeface, seen in use on the stationery.
To accompany this simple logo, I created a brand pattern — a sort of modern tapestry — which brings in symbols and elements of medieval history, culture, religion, and military.

In the end, we created a basic stationery system in addition to the brand style guide and miscellaneous graphics. The stationery system was printed in two colours, using gold metallic ink and blue, on several different paper stocks. The letterhead are Neenah Classic Crest 24W Natural White, the cards are duplexed, with the same Neenah stock on the front, with a French Paper 100# parchment on the reverse. The envelopes are from Mohawk 32# Jute. Printing by Alpine Creative Group, photography by Bill Wadman.