Pirate (formerly Pirate Studios) is a global network of creative studios empowering the next generation of musicians, producers, podcasters and dancers. With 24-hour access to over 600 studios worldwide, Pirate are breaking down barriers to creativity, offering fully equipped professional spaces at the most affordable price point.
There is a democratic and collaborative spirit that radiates from everything at Pirate. Working closely with the team, we identified ‘democratising creative space’ as a founding principle of the business. The process would take Pirate back to basics; presenting an authentic brand that promised to empower people to ‘create something real’.
The first step was to lose the corporate logo. The URL would instead become the calling card—clear, direct and operative. Against the status quo.
For the wider identity, it was important that creative assets could be produced easily,
by anyone, anywhere, without obstacle. Arial was selected as the brand’s corporate typeface—one of the most democratic, widely available and freely licensed fonts in the world. Three settings of stretch create a distinctive aesthetic and provide the necessary hierarchy for information. The sound recording symbol Ⓟ has been adapted from the Arial glyph set to act as a digital shorthand.
Combined with an inclusive approach to photography and a diverse secondary palette comprising widely available Pantone inks—the identity celebrates the passion, diversity and authenticity of the Pirate community.
Across studio locations, place names are free-stretched on exterior frontages in recognition of the local area. An interior wayfinding system repurposes an off-the- shelf modular racking system, reducing fit-out costs in a way that is both ownable and utilitarian.
3 Comments on “Pirate identity”
It’s certainly true that Arial is very widely available. It’s not free, though, neither in the meaning of gratis nor of libre. Arial may come bundled with many operating systems and software packages at no extra charge. In many cases, though, a small fraction of the price one pays for the software goes to Monotype, the licensor of Arial. If you need a license that goes beyond basic desktop use, Arial can be more expensive than many other fonts. For example, embedding Arial in two apps will bring you in the four digits. And that’s for a single weight of the Standard (non-Pro) version, per year.
/nitpick over
the stretching is kinda yuck, but I’m guessin that’s 'normcore’?
I applaud you, Only Studio! This project is like Stedelijk 2.0! Sleepers always gonna sleep, like these two fools above my comment, but this case gonna be a classic and definitely one of the most memorable moments of the decade! Please, keep on surprising us!