Power Printing

> IDEA award winner
> reddot award winner

Design Challenge: To create a strategic design system for Heidelberg and its large number of recently acquired companies. This expansion of the parent brand required strategic design to integrate and express the brand in all possible products from desktop to newspaper press printing.

To redesign Heidelberg's current line of mix-matched products into an integrated system of printing presses that would reflect the high quality of the brand, and the press technology itself and specifically, appeal to the American market.

Design Solution: We developed a design language and full corporate design system and control manual that projects advanced technology and reliability, which are critical to its users' needs. Because of the large, structurally complex nature of its presses, we chose architecture as a design language theme. We applied this theme in the consistent curvature of the front doors, and in railings and platforms throughout the press.

We established a foreground color palette that is silver, conveying high quality, similar to what is used in high-tech products. We kept the background, interior colors dark for practical reasons, cleaning needs and durability.

These enormous, complex machines are assembled by hand so that no two installations are the same. It is an assembly of thousands of parts and sub assemblies. Our designs are modular and, continuing the architectural design language theme, carry an intuitive conceptual "erector set" assemblage.

The designs have unified Heidelberg's systems as well as reinvigorated their teams with a renewed sense of pride.