5x5 shapes a bold, enduring identity for ONE’s urban practice — The Brand Identity – Home of the Greatest in Graphic & Brand Design

ONE is a long-standing architecture and urbanism practice that designs resilient cities for the long term. Through data, spatial design and policy, the studio helps places adapt to climate threats such as rising sea levels, flooding and extreme storms, while also responding to slower, long-term urban change. Its work balances nature, infrastructure and human life, turning complex challenges into practical, place-based plans.

While ONE’s projects operate on a large scale, the practice also serves as a unifying force, bringing together diverse disciplines and perspectives. Local citizens are invited into workshops that help shape their own neighbourhoods; government offices, environmental experts, artists and storytellers all become part of the process. With offices in the Netherlands and the US, ONE was nearing the 10-year mark of its New York studio when it invited London-based agency 5x5 to review its brand and make the case for how the identity might evolve.

Rather than completely overhaul the existing symbol-based identity, 5x5 chose to build on what was already there. The new identity was designed to distil the existing system into something much clearer, more recognisable, and easier to apply consistently. In short, as 5x5 explains, the aim was to create “a single visual mark and identity framework that could hold together the full scope of the practice while remaining simple, distinctive and adaptable.”

Balancing market context with deeper brand discovery, Co-founders Nik Kanbi and Jake Gilbert describe the research phase as both structured and exploratory: “We began with a conventional audit,” they tell us, mapping direct competitors and the broader landscape before looking outward to brands “whose ambitions, values, or outputs resonated with ONE’s vision.” Just as importantly, the method echoed the client, closely mirroring ONE’s collaborative, research-driven and iterative approach. That meant immersing themselves in the studio’s history, culture and transatlantic identity, exploring everything from its Dutch-American roots to the personal influences of founder Matthijs Bouw.

One of the central challenges was how to represent both offices within a single identity. For ONE, this duality is a point of pride: “The Netherlands is their foundation, while the US is home to their second studio and many of their clients,” explain Kanbi and Gilbert. The challenge, then, was to communicate those Dutch roots “in a way that felt natural within a US context.”

That duality plays out most clearly in the typography. Typotheque’s Zed Display – chosen for its clarity and versatility, and itself shaped by rigorous scientific research into legibility – acts as a subtle nod to ONE’s Amsterdam roots. Alongside it, Commercial Type’s Feature Display, originally designed for The New York Times, brings a more editorial flavour and a little contrast.

If the type does some of the connective work, the brand mark is where everything locks into place. Built directly from Zed Display’s letterforms, it merges the characters into a single sculptural form. The intention was to respond “directly to the name itself”: to make “a singular form that could quite literally contain and suggest all three letters – ‘O,’ ‘N’ and ‘E’ – within one unified shape.” While the form is simple and bold, the mark can shift character depending on context: it can mask imagery, move through different colour combinations, stretch into 3D, or take on textures that reference the practise itself. Sitting within a perfect 16:9 ratio, it can also be used full-bleed, becoming increasingly abstract – at times almost disappearing into the layout altogether.

From that core wordmark, 5x5 developed an adaptive identity system. As the studio explains: “What feels promising about the identity is that it was built as a system rather than a fixed visual style, so it has room to grow and respond as the work evolves, without needing to be reworked every time the studio shifts direction.” That flexibility carries through the wider identity too, including a colour palette born from aspects of ONE’s practice: the materials they work with, references from their projects, and the environments they shape. It works flexibly in a range of combinations, echoing ONE’s fluidity and adaptability across multiple disciplines, while always maintaining a cohesive feel. Adaptability, fittingly, feels central to the identity’s longevity.

The “Dutch design influence,” as 5x5 describes it, gives the identity “a strong stylistic base” that should endure over time – “not tied to a trend” – while still being flexible enough to accommodate more experimental or data-led applications when needed. Ultimately, the brand is built to endure by embracing a flexing style that adapts to the studio’s evolving needs. Rather than an immovable structure, this identity provides a resilient framework that remains as fluid as the urban environments ONE seeks to protect.