MAUD

For more than 40 years, Schwartz Media has built a reputation for publishing the highest quality writing and journalism in the country through titles including The Saturday Paper, The Monthly magazine, Quarterly Essay and Australian Foreign Affairs, guided by its progressive visionary: Morry Schwartz.

The time had come to define the brand apart from the man – to bottle the Morry Schwartz magic to future-proof a counterculture icon. In order to continue an extraordinary run of success, we needed to define and name a new masterbrand, as well as clearly articulate the relationships between this new entity and a host of ever-expanding publishing brands.

MAUD partnered with Schwartz on a programme of work to define its brand blueprint, map a coherent brand architecture and create a visual identity for a new masterbrand.

In collaboration with Public Office, we developed a concept which celebrates founder Morry Schwartz’s roots in 1960s and 70s underground culture. Inspired by Schwartz’s personal archives, we adapted and updated vernacular from protest movements, and worked with the renowned type designer Radim Peško to modify his typeface Girott to create a bold logotype that borrows traits from makeshift signage while retaining characterful and distinctive elements. The simple, confident typographic language extends across Schwartz’s diverse touchpoints, supported by a monochromatic colour palette, which, in its simplicity, serves to highlight Schwartz’s ongoing commitment to stand for truthful and transparent reporting in a time of mistrust and fake news.

We then developed a simple, straightforward and coherent website to echo these notions.