Blok Design Case Study

PT.1 Blok design was founded in 1999 by Vanessa Eckstein, it is a studio that focuses on brand identity and story. The company has worked with a large variety of clients including big names like Pepsi and Nike, but now focused on smaller more niche companies. Their business slogan is there is always another way. Vanessa is very open with the structure of her work, with only a mandatory monday meeting for designers then they choose how they do their work the rest of the week. She has moved Blok from Toronto to Mexico City and back, explaining the need for unpredictability in her life. Vanessa describes Blok’s location in the lesser known part of Toronto as fitting for the company as they look for things “that are yet to be defined.” The studio

It starts with an in depth questionnaire and lots of research, covering everything from huge goals to small events that have happened. They then ask for five descriptive adjectives for the company they're working with, banning the words friendly and approachable. After getting all that background Marta and Vanessa travel to the company to have a face to face interview and go over the ideas for the brand identity. A lot of information is discovered during the face to face and after that they finally get to working on the visuals for the identity. Blok created the brand identity for SHE, which stands for sustainable health enterprise. SHE focuses on improving the quality of life for women in developing countries and works to empower women. The design shows that through word placement and color scheme. The identity is a large bold SHE on the top of a narrow page, the word she is underlined with a large space between it allowing the sub brands to have a name under the main

They are different in the fact that they don’t always look for the biggest name projects but for projects that they will enjoy and have a positive impact. I find their work very attractive as a job for myself for many reasons. The first being that they are their own boss and can make their own hours and work at their own pace. Rigid work structure is not in their business model at all and I agree with that. Another reason is they get to create stunning works of art that also have a purpose as a logo or brand identity and that is incredibly satisfying to do. The open mindedness and freedom to just pack up and move to another country is also very attractive in a job perspective as many don’t have that option. As for their design and artwork, I enjoy their use of typography and minimalism to create modern designs. As they say their work has to have legacy value, meaning it is timeless and beautiful. They don’t just follow the trend of the year. They forge their own path in designing beautiful pieces of work that are original in themselves and can adapt and stick with a company for a long