Studio Albin Holmqvist builds Taipan’s identity on tape-drawn constraints — The Brand Identity – Home of the Greatest in Graphic & Brand Design
Taipan draws its name from two sources. The first is the genus of Australian snakes known for being large, fast-moving and extremely venomous. The second is a lesser-known snowboard trick where the front hand grabs the toe edge between the bindings while reaching between the legs. For Taipan’s founders, who’ve spent decades immersed in board-sports culture, the latter etymology matters more. Stockholm-based Studio Albin Holmqvist developed the identity for this creative practice that operates across film, photography, design and special projects. Taipan’s founders bring authentic experience from helping shape snowboard and skateboard culture from the inside, working with clients like Aston Martin, Porsche and Nike Snowboarding.
The identity centres on a heavyweight bespoke wordmark, custom-drawn with deliberate constraints that generate unexpected character. Holmqvist built the letterforms from rectangles of identical width, creating what he describes as a tape-drawn quality. “The basic construction of the wordmark consists of rectangles with the same width, like it was drawn using tape. No optical adjustments were made, a cardinal sin some would say,” he explains. The same curve and rounding method applies to every corner regardless of angle, producing peculiar results. “This weirdly made the countershape in the ‘A’ perfectly circular while the counter in the ‘P’ takes on this elongated strange shape.” Rather than smoothing these imperfections, Holmqvist embraced them. “The constraints and imperfections caused by methods and tools are very interesting to me, if everything is sanded down and perfected it loses its intangible originality in my opinion,” he notes. The short, four-letter name provided freedom to push the graphic execution further since the word maintains inherent legibility.
The typographic system pairs ABC Walter from Dinamo with ITC Century Book Condensed, creating deliberate contrast. ABC Walter originates from a tool designed by type educator Walter Käch in the mid-twentieth century for teaching students to draw letterforms. Its high contrast and clarity handles headlines and shorter messaging. ITC Century Book Condensed, dating from 1975, references classic film poster billing blocks, connecting to the cinematic quality of Taipan’s work. “The work of the founders excels in the fact that their work is both very cinematic and grand and more scrappy and human,” Holmqvist shares. “This is something I wanted to reference in the typographic palette.” The combination covers expression and practicality across varied applications, from treatments and pitches to production documents.
The colour palette uses cautionary red as the signature hue, supported by venom green. Both make literal reference to the dangers of the taipan snake, balanced against the refined typographic system. “Since the typographic system is refined, structured and pretty pared down it gave us the leeway to be more aggressive and expressive in other aspects; colour choices being one of these instances,” explains Holmqvist. “I look at my design process as a mixer board, when I turn up one channel I have to balance it out by lowering others.”
The collaborative relationship between studio and client allows for ongoing evolution without rigid guardrails. “This is not a Pentagram-style brand that needs guardrails because the brand will be used by 500 people in a huge organisation,” Holmqvist explains. “As we will have an ongoing collaboration I can make sure that the work I’ve made will evolve in a natural way for other contexts as well.”
Authenticity emerged naturally from the founders’ lived experience and Holmqvist’s own background. “Each of us in the creative team has more than 25 years of experience in skateboarding and snowboarding, and we're our own demographic so the authentic part comes very naturally,” says Holmqvist. Rather than mining specific visual language from street aesthetics or punk influences, the approach focuses on directness and eclecticism. “We’re more looking at a raw and direct way of doing things than a specific visual language. All of the hand-drawn elements come directly from someone (myself) who has been submerged in the culture for more than two decades.”
The identity creates what Holmqvist describes as a platform for expression rather than a locked context. Taipan operates primarily in spaces where it connects with like-minded, creatively driven people rather than competing for public attention. “This gives us the freedom to be a bit eclectic and unpolished at times,” he notes. The flexibility serves a practice that moves between high-profile commercial work and more intimate creative projects, maintaining craft and cultural relevance as constants across all outputs.