Principal’s identity and website for production company L'Éloi are clever in more ways than one — The Brand Identity – Home of the Greatest in Graphic & Brand Design

Canadian production company L'Éloi’s carefully curated pool of image makers is like a “burst of RGB energy,” says Bryan-K. Lamonde, Co-founder & Creative Director at Principal, a Montreal-based design studio that took charge of rebranding the company. “The talents they represent are vibrant, colourful, intense and dynamic. We wanted to amplify this intensity and make it bold, proud and powerful. At the same time, we balanced it with moments of well-crafted silence to create harmony.” It’s true. Principal’s refreshed brand for L'Éloi is impossible to ignore, demanding complete attention when the studio pulls focus to it, but it just as easily slips into the background, throwing the doors open for the company’s roster of artists and their high-impact work.

Much of this flexibility is owed to what Lamonde calls “a surgical use of type” and space in the new identity, which aimed to bring more energy and clarity to the company, that, over the past decade and a half, has worked with brands like Nike, SSENSE, Microsoft and Perrier. The logo, which sits front and centre, was designed by Studio Feed, who drew inspiration from typefaces “such as Futura Bold or Century Gothic, very cinematic fonts,” adds Lamonde. The team arranged the logo in a single line – which previously sat in two lines – and complimented its confidence with Review, “the ideal typographic voice for L'Éloi,” he adds. “This choice was inspired by the boldness of classic American advertising and the elegance of European typography, creating a blend that evokes the cinematic and advertising styles of a certain era,” Lamonde tells us. But why the nod to Europe for a Canadian company? “Being in Montreal feels a bit like being in Europe within North America,” he explains, adding that this unique blend is the city’s hallmark, offering a progressive and creative environment. “For L'Éloi, aiming to showcase its talents on a global stage, we felt it was important to strike a balance between European sophistication and North American dynamism.”

The graphic approach was also touched by the creative sensibility of the brand, which promises to “Reveal the World’s Beauty.” As a production studio, its content had to shine the brightest, and so Principal knew instinctively that their identity had to be agile, being able to convey the essence of the company, but also allow the work of L'Éloi’s artists to speak for themselves. “With our extensive experience working with clients in contemporary art, we’ve learned the value of stepping back and adopting a quieter stance,” says Lamonde.

This approach is evident in the treatment of the identity, but also in the design of the website, which engulfs the visitor’s attention with a stack of full-bleed images and videos on the homepage. The experience is clever as well; click on ‘Open’ as you hover over a video, and quickly, two options appear to either ‘Watch’ the video, or ‘See Case Study,’ creating a path of least resistance to where viewers want to go – right into the work of the artists. Ultimately, Principal’s inspired identity and digital world for L'Éloi is built entirely in service of the people who want to discover their work and also the brilliance of the image makers they champion.