Pentagram has designed the brand identity and naming for Maker Mile, a vibrant new platform aimed at celebrating and supporting craftsmanship across cities around the world.

Maker Mile organises fairs, exhibitions, workshops and talks aimed at a broad audience of locals and visitors and which embrace all types of making. Its ambition is to be an itinerant project which can spread and expand, bringing attention to the crafts which define the identity of different cities. 

Maker Mile was launched as part of Venice Design Week 2020 with ‘Fragments of Crafts and Design in the Lagoon’, which investigated the boundaries between craftsmanship and design and the possibilities of interaction between the two.

The team created both Maker Mile’s name and its distinctive typographic identity. While established in Venice, the English name ensures that the initiative has international appeal, and the word ‘Maker‘ puts the people involved at centre stage, ensuring that a broad range of disciplines is included. The reference to ‘Mile’ communicates the sense of place, destination and of belonging to a community.

A key part of the identity, the horizontal bar of the letter ‘L’ in ‘Mile’ extends to emphasise the idea of reaching out, symbolising something which is always on the move, and a space where everything comes to life. 

The design team created a flexible and dynamic visual system which can work across many different formats and create unexpected connections between disciplines. The ‘Mile’ can stretch according to how it is applied, highlighting processes and bringing different details into focus on assets including business cards, brochures, merchandise, billboards and online.

The identity uses Grilli Type’s GT America Extended throughout. The first ‘Venice edition’ of Maker Mile features warm terracotta, reminiscent of Venice rooftops and architectural facades. Each subsequent city edition will have its own unique colour, with the expanded palette comprising of a set of diverse and joyful shades.

Pentagram has created a playful and expressive identity which perfectly encapsulates Maker Mile’s admirable ambition to spread the word about the joy of craft, and to support and encourage makers from around the world.