Kontrapunkt News

Matas in new stripes

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:00:00 GMT

Matas (founded in 1949) is with its 296 shops the largest and most renowned chemist retail chain in Denmark. There is a Matas in almost every small city of Denmark, and the retail chain is so apparent that it has become a part of Danish heritage.

Now Kontrapunkt has redesigned the well-known Danish brand’s most famous trademark “The Matas stripes” to fit into a modern and contemporary context. Besides re-designing the iconic stripes of Matas’ product line of vitamins and minerals, Kontrapunkt has updated Matas’ typeface, colours and general packaging on these products as well.

Supermarket or pharmacy?
The new design resembles a step forward towards high quality and knowledge, meeting the needs of the demanding consumer of today’s Denmark. The design also shows an intention of Matas moving towards a field of expertise within health, but at the same time maintaining some functional qualities of a supermarket.

Svante Lindeburg, Partner and Head of Brand Strategy at Kontrapunkt says: “The challenge was to find a design that perfectly resembles value for money – in other words finding the right spot on the spectrum between discount and exclusivity. I think the new design successfully expresses Matas’ current position between supermarket and pharmacy.”

Senior designer Mikael Tonning at Kontrapunkt continues: “With the new design we have combined the simplicity and easily recognizable look of the well-known Matas stripes in a new way that makes room for valuable product information.
The striped products are the best in their price group, which we show through the new design”.

Kontrapunkt has revitalized the design by among other stylish touches adding more white space and downscaling of the diagonal characteristic stripes. Through a set of design guidelines, provided by Kontrapunkt, the clean and contemporary look is implemented on all 90 labels of Matas’ vitamins and minerals – and presumably on other striped product categories in the future.

KP2 becomes Kontrapunkt

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 23:00:00 GMT

KP2 and Kontrapunkt will merge into one brand called Kontrapunkt from January 1st, 2012. The new united Kontrapunkt will master all design disciplines from strategic concept development and expression to implementation and brand guardianship.

Kontrapunkt is already known for its world-class design solutions. Our ambition is now to further heighten the design quality of our implementation work – and to integrate implementation know-how into the earlier design phases. The benefit of this to our clients is that all design solutions developed by Kontrapunkt will meet the highest creative standards as well as work perfectly in the real world.

A new director, Thomas Gamst, is appointed to head Kontrapunkt’s implementation business unit. Thomas has been with Kontrapunkt Group A/S since 2006 and is currently senior partner and CFO. Thomas holds an MBA from Henley and prior to Kontrapunkt worked at Coca-Cola Nordic.

All KP2’s current contractual agreements and hourly rates will remain unaffected by this brand merger. Your contact persons at KP2 and Kontrapunkt will also remain unchanged.

Presenting Bob

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 23:00:00 GMT

Kontrapunkt releases its second public typeface for download free of charge. The new typeface Bob is now ready to travel the world.

"Bob has been ten years in the making. We wanted a more contemporary version of the Kontrapunkt typeface, which we launched in 2003. Bob is more round, soft and friendly, while clean and “monoline” in its expression. We are very exited about sending Bob into the world and look forward to expanding Bob’s family," says founding partner, Bo Linnemann.

Kontrapunkt’s previous typeface has been downloaded over 200.000 times and spotted all over the world. Kontrapunkt releases typefaces for free use and download to give everyone a chance to choose from a diverse range of high-quality fonts, and through these fonts illuminate identities.

Type-tester
To launch the new typeface Kontrapunkt designed a playful type-tester, enabling users to test Kontrapunkt’s typefaces in the gravity field of planet earth. The mini website is developed in the latest HTML5 and Javascript technologies to show some of the rich features available in browser experiences today. Mobile users are also able to access the website thanks to a responsive interface, which scales down in size to fit smaller screens.

Please feel free to download the typeface yourself at kontrapunkt.com/type and share your experiences and opinions via Twitter hashtag #kptype.

Representing the nation

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 23:00:00 GMT

eu2012.dk web and mobile sites officially launched

Starting January 1st 2012 Denmark takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union - a rotation that comes up approximately every 10 years. Kontrapunkt designed the web and mobile sites that will serve as the central toolbox for all the information about the work of the Presidency as well as the vital tools for those closely involved, such as the extensive meeting and events calendar.

"eu2012.dk is designed to be user-friendly and have a light and Danish feel to it. At the same time it includes a lot of information, which enables us to open up the work of the EU and the Presidency for Danes and Denmark for Europeans”, says Minister for European Affairs Nicolai Wammen.

Under competition, Kontrapunkt was chosen to take on the challenge of developing a visual æsthetic for the digital communications during the Danish Presidency - an æsthetic that should uphold the qualities of the Danish design tradition and at the same time can deliver vital information to distinct target groups.

To this challenge Kontrapunkt explored a number of tone and style directions, narrowing it down to a design that bases itself from the key words ”transparent”, ”nordic”, and ”functional”. It signals Danish design, underscores the stately institution and makes elegant use of a fifth element. These are all qualities that have been remarked as surprising and different and very well suited to the occasion.

The second part of the challenge was to design a seamless user experience and the result is a central toolbox for the Presidency - providing not just information but a number of tools such as accreditation, meeting and events planning, contacts, media quotes, subscription services, and social media feeds. Through a series of workshops conducted with ministry representatives, as well as participatory user research, Kontrapunkt designed a site that is highly optimized for its users.

New bank on the block

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:00:00 GMT

Kontrapunkt is behind BankNordik’s visual identity, signage and new façades.

The Faroese bank BankNordik took over Amagerbanken in the summer of 2011. Today the bank’s new visual identity lights up the streets of Copenhagen.

“Helping the Faroe Islands’ largest company to establish itself on the Danish market is an honour. Not only are we getting a new and competent bank on the market, we are also kick-starting a closer commercial relationship between the Faroese Islands and Denmark”, says CEO at Kontrapunkt, Jasmi Bonnén.

Through an extremely smooth and compressed process Kontrapunkt designed and implemented signage and façades for 12 affiliates in Copenhagen within 3 months. The Faroe Islands’ largest ad agency Sendistovan led the marketing campaign and Lysiplex, Denmark’s largest signage manufacturer, produced the signage. On street-level the transformation from Amagerbanken to BankNordik happened overnight.

B for Bo

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:00:00 GMT

Bo Linnemann receives Denmark’s National Bank’s Anniversary Foundation’s Grant of Honour and opens exhibition in the National Bank’s lobby.

We are proud to announce that our colleague, architect, graphic designer, founding partner and creative director Bo Linnemann is honoured with a prestigious prize, Denmark’s National Bank’s Anniversary Foundation’s Grant of Honour.
Member of the foundation’s board, architect and former recipient Lene Tranberg presented the prize, which Bo receives for his artistic achievements and longstanding efforts to develop the graphic design tradition – in Denmark and abroad.

“In Bo Linnemann’s work with logos and designs of letters you will experience a precise language that speaks to our subconscious and directly to our senses. He shows beautiful and efficient ways of taking the calligraphic tradition further in a globalised world that more than ever needs gifted interpretations of the concepts "diversity" and "identity"”, says Lene in her speech.

Along with the prize ceremony opens an exhibition of six typographies exemplifying Bo’s outstanding designs. On view is Bo’s work for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Danske Bank, Danish Pharmacies, Danish Railways, Carlsberg and Kontrapunkt’s own visual identity.

The exhibition takes place in the National Bank’s lobby from October 27 to November 25, 2011.

Read more here.

Bergen Bybane is named Light Rail Project of the year 2011 by Global Light Rail Awards

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Bergen Light Rail completed its first light rail line in 2010 and has already established itself as the backbone of the public transport system in Bergen.

Despite keen competition from light rail projects in Europe, Australia and the US, Light Rail Transit Association named Bergen Light Rail the Worldwide Project of the Year 2011.

As part of the design and architectural team Kontrapunkt has been responsible for the overall architecture and managing the design as well as the development of the graphic profile, the platform equipment design and the comprehensive design handbook for Bybanen - Bergen Light Rail.

The rationale behind the jury’s choice is:
"Effective design and planning meant the Light Railway was realized in two years, within the deadline and budget. And the passenger numbers have already surpassed all forecasts. But even more important: Bergen Light Rail has become a landmark for the region."

Kontrapunkt congratulates Bergen!

Kontrapunkt designs new unified look and logic for public transportation in Copenhagen

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Kontrapunkt designs new unified look and logic for public transportation in Copenhagen. The new design system helps travelers navigate transportation hubs and facilitates services across transportation providers.

Users of public transportation have been demanding better information on how to plan their travels across multiple services such as bus, train and metro. This demand has been accommodated by a close cooperation between Movia, Metro, DSB, DSB S-tog, Danish Rail, Rejseplanen, Danish Transport Authority and The Danish Road Directorate.

Kontrapunkt was chosen as a design partner for the project and went about the challenge in search for at new uniform design that is clear and visible, yet friendly, warm and light. The design was based on a bespoke accommodating typeface and from this unfolded onto several platforms; signage, wayfinding, digital information and physical objects like markers and an info zone.

Among its platforms is a unique digital 10-minute overview of all the departures on the current station.
“To handle all this shared information in just one screen, we realized we had to design something very graphical and intuitive. By analyzing how we perceive digital calendars and computer games, we found the inspiration to our 10 minute overview screen”, says Philip Dam Roadley-Battin, Designer at Kontrapunkt.

“The travelers will now meet a shared visual expression, which is easier to understand. I see the initiative on Flintholm Station as an important step towards outstanding passenger information across bus, train and metro. Good information to our shared customers is prioritized highly by us.”, says Henrik Plougmann Olsen, CEO of Metroselskabet.

The new design is currently being tested at Flintholm Station throughout 2011. The plan is to finish the design based on feedback from travelers in 2012.

Powered by design

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Invest in Denmark asked Kontrapunkt to conceptualize and design a booklet to promote Denmark as one of the top creative hot spots in the world.

Packed in an enticing red design and filled with strong, bold headliners the message is manifested: Copenhagen is the hottest design cluster in the world. Why? Great design heritage, most prestigious design award (Index), best test market, international innovators are setting up their businesses here, one of the most liveable cities and the happiest people in the world – to name a few from the long list of reasons.

The design of the booklet proofs the proliferating creative culture in Denmark businesses worldwide are tapping into.

Get a kick out of culture

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Kontrapunkt created the identity for the magazine Kulturkik along with the website Kulturklik. Similar to the website the intense pink colour provides a fresh and edgy feel and the clean dotted graphic elements tie the magazine together.

“Kulturkik” is the ultimate guide to more than 70 museums, galleries and other cultural institutions in the Greater Copenhagen Area. Indulge in exhibition reviews as well as articles about museum parties after normal opening hours, essays on historic cultural personas and opinions from the regular art lover to prominent Danish trendsetters – all representing the diversity of cultural experiences. The magazine is available today.

With the magazine in his hands senior designer Mikael Toning expresses his satisfaction: “Kulturkik together with Kulturklik bring new awareness to the cultural scene of Copenhagen. The strong visual identity reaches out to everyone – young and old – clearly communicating the diversity of cultural experiences that the city has to offer.”