about the studio

Working Format is a graphic design studio founded by Ross Milne, Grace Partridge and Abi Huynh, and based in Vancouver, Canada. Working Format exhibits a project-specific working process that has produced a diverse body of work that includes type design, signage, identity and printed matter. The studio has received numerous distinctions including recognition from The Best Dutch Books, Graphex 2008 and 2010, Coupe, Alcuin Society and Salazar awards.










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The Paris Magazine

published by Shakespeare and Company, Paris
editor: Fatema Ahmed

George Whitman founded The Paris Magazine (not to be confused with The Paris Review) in 1967 and it continued with two subsequent issues (the last of which was published in the late 1980s). We were asked to design the fourth issue of the magazine (reincarnated as a journal) for the June 2010 FestivalandCo literary festival in Paris. Along with the typography and art direction we also drew an updated masthead for the publication.

Cheaper Show print

limited edition intaglio print, paper: Rives BFK Arches, June 2010
printed by Peter Braune, New Leaf Editions

A limited edition print created to be sold at Cheaper Show No. 9. The lettering is based on the type used in the Cheaper Show identity while departing from the rigid sans-serif in order to create an amalgam of type styles that reflect the diversity of the event itself.

Mannam/Meeting

designed with Jae Jeon
Mar 28 – Apr 25, 2010 (Second Dialogue)
Mannam curated by Hoon Kim and Andrew Sloat

This project responds to one of the only constraints of the open project brief—the location. The sites of Project No. 8 and Project No. 8b inspired a search for the past incarnations of these present-day storefronts: the story of the Division Street shop is told through narrative fragments from a varied and shadowy history; in contrast, the Orchard Street shop was the location of a sign fabricator that remains in business nearby. Selected fragments of their discarded signs have been brought back to Project No. 8 to be sold.

Tobias Frere-Jones, Gerrit Noordzij prize exhibition catalogue

produced by Type and Media 08/09
edited by Abi Huynh and Dan Milne

A book produced by the Type and Media 08/09 class on occassion of the exhibition of Tobias Frere-Jones' work at KABK in March 2009. The book collects his work between 1987 and 2006, articles by Frere-Jones, as well as anecdotes and stories from friends and colleagues. The catalogue was selected as one of the Best Dutch Books of 2009.

Commercial Type specimens

Specimens for the Commercial Type website

Working with the (amazing) type library of Commercial Type, and under direction from Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz, we developed a set of PDF specimens for the Commercial website. The challenge was to create a grid system that would be ideal when printed on both 8.5 x 11 and A4 paper sizes. At the same time the atmosphere of the specimens had to be flexible and adaptive to the many different styles of typefaces in the CT library.

Charlie

designed by Ross Milne
soon to be published by Typotheque

Charlie is a slab-serif type family with proportional weights that allow you to increase the size of the letters without increasing their weight. Charlie began as Ross Milne's thesis project Foxtrot that was created while attending the Type and Media program at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, Netherlands.

Arietta

designed by Abi Huynh
slated to be released through Village

Arietta is a text face intended for short subject and non-fiction books, the family consists of a transitional roman with multiple text italics that provide modulating degrees of stylistic contrast from the roman. Arietta Book has a serious, unobtrusive tone while the three italic companions each produce distinct character and textural density.

Stag Sans Round

Stag family designed by Christian Schwartz
Stag Sans Round by Ross Milne
published by Commercial Type

In 2009, the US edition of Esquire Magazine commissioned Stag Sans Round as an extension to the Stag family used throughout the magazine. Buy Stag Sans Round at Commercial Type and Village.

Everyone

Custom display typeface commissioned by Karacters for Sport BC

'Everyone' was commissioned by Karacters for a display and headline typeface to be used throughout a campaign for Sport BC, an advocate for amateur sport initiatives in British Columbia.