Pentagram has created a new identity for Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners, Richard Rogers' award winning architecture firm that has designed the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Lloyd’s Building in London (which in 2011 became the youngest building to be given Grade I-listed status), and the Stirling Prize winning Madrid Barajas Airport.
The identity follows a set of films directed by Pentagram partner Marina Willer about Rogers, including: Ethos, screened at London's Royal Academy of Arts; Thinking & Making, screened at London's Design Museum; and Exposed, screened at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Evolving Pentagram's original scheme, the new logo resembles the skyline and uses vertical lettering to illustrate the importance of partnership and collaboration at the practice. This equal representation of all the partners with emphasis on the partnership word and reference to infrastructure, brings attention to the practice’s future as well as Rogers’ legacy.
Similar to Pentagram’s own structure, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners is partner-based. It was essential that the identity made this collaborative atmosphere clear. It also had to connect to the practice’s utilitarian principles, outlined in a manifesto that asserts the architects’ responsibility towards “contributing to the welfare of mankind, the society in which we practice and the team with whom we work”, and a profit-share system that means that the salaries of the directors cannot rise above a certain proportion to of the lowest-paid employee.
