info@civilian.co.za

Civilian™ is for the design & development of most things, for most people:

  • Branding

  • Products

  • Furniture & interiors

  • Marine

We oughta

build something.


Civilian™ is a multimedia design consultancy that exists to develop and enhance brands, products and services.
With a broad repertoire of creative tools - and an established network of collaborators, suppliers and friends to call on when needed - together we'll develop meaningful solutions to any given challenge.
From logos to retail, furniture to yacht design, this is a general portfolio of client work, and self initiated endeavours.
This site is in the process of being updated


Build

A selection of projects.


Do you work in: design, fabrication, advertising, animation, illustration, or similar fields? We're always on the lookout for people, services and collaboration.
Build it and they will come.

Brand

Knew.

Been fortunate to have worked with some great brands, and helped craft some new ones too.
Identity is important when everything looks the same.

Vytae

Case studies for some of the listed projects are in process. If you'd like to know more about anything in particular, please get in touch.


Vytae

Logos


Marks, get set.

The summarised logo design process begins with convoluted grids questions, as do most projects:
Who, what, where, when, why, how?
From there, derived keywords assist in creating visual elements that convey the brand or service intent. Concepts become refined, type explored, with client engagement helping things along.
Finally, after some brief reflection and consideration, the ultimate logo is optimised for required end use scenarios. Below are some of the logo and wordmarks developed over the years, including a few discarded concepts (nogos), in no particular order.



Zehn Productions

Here are a few full colour logo treatments, sometimes with added effects and often designed with potential animation in mind, depending on industry and general brand focus.Logos are supplied in whichever formats accommodate a given branding requirement (eg. digital, print, signage).

Zehn Productions


Branding

Zehn Productions provide audio-visual services for events. Their core offering extends to staging, lighting, projection mapping, visual effects and animation. Tasked with updating their own brand identity, we started with a new logo and expanded into digital and print media.



Zehn Productions
Zehn Productions

Brief

The AV and events industries increasingly go hand in hand, with projected digital media becoming an integral component for success. They cater to human experiences, and so the drive to develop stimulating, enveloping events is stronger than ever.Zehn Productions, wielders of audio-visual magic, needed an impactful identity that was: Bold; energised; clean; and distinct.

Logo concepts

Logo development begins without colour, focussing on form and related expressive qualities only, and interfacing with lettering / acronyms pretty early through the process. Below were some of the emblem explorations that we continued with. Animation potential was considered throughout development, given the motion graphics intense nature of the business.

rhythm, energy, flow, precision, focus, scale

Zehn Productions

+

Lines together create an abstract 'Z' and take influence from a Zen garden's raked sand patterns.

Zehn Productions

+

A looping structure suggestive of process, while also representing a 'Z' (and 'P') for Zehn Productions.

Zehn Productions

+

A 'ZP' combination, having now brought focus to 'Productions' in the name, and subsequently evolved...

Stage. Sound. Light.

Nice tagline, right? To the point, and quickly emphasises the what Zehn Productions does, working as they do with these three ingredients.
We retained it, and began evaluating how best to incorporate it into the branding, as well as now bringing the word 'Production' into things, to better reflect what company does.

Viscous platter
Zehn Productions
Zehn Productions

Below, a last concept iteration before the (quite different) final solution - a stylised Z + P combination. It was intended to offer cool animation possibilities (the emblem), and again emphasised the notion of 'process,' resembling a conveyer belt in a sense.
'Productions' was abbreviated where necessary, the tagline optional.

Zehn Productions
Zehn Productions

Small trick on the compliments slip, with the logo emblem resembling a heart (when rotated) above an area for a brief note to clients.


Adds colour...

Stage. Sound. Light.

RGB
  • XYZ axes ~ event building

  • RGB colour ~ light

  • Hexagon ~ environment (events, scaffolding)

  • Grid structure for graphic pattern usage

  • 'Z' structure for Zehn ~ stage

  • Light + shadow ~ projection mapping

RGB

Final logo. The primary type has some flow to it, retaining a link to 'Zen' word association. It would mostly be used in digital formats and against black/ darkness, but for other applications, including print, emblem adaptions were developed...

RGB

Vehicle graphics use vivid lines to draw attention and emphasize the idea of motion. They are angled at 45° and reference the diamond/ 3D planes that make up the logo emblem, as well as evoking production clapperboards.

Zehn Productions

Crew gear...

Zehn Productions

Conclusions

Zehn Productions now had a distinct and dynamic identity, reflecting their brand values and sense of tech-driven energy. Fun project!

Vytae

Viscous platter


Glassware design

Developed under User Design™
Invited to contribute a new luxury homeware / furniture concept as part of a joint exhibit with other designers, we elected to develop a glass platter. It took design inspiration from a few sources - contour maps, the notion of liquidity & viscosity (hence the eventual name), sand dunes and other undulating landscapes.




Viscous platter
Viscous platter
Viscous platter

Concept

Five homogeneous profiles collectively form an organic, irregular shape. In plan view, these profiles inset smaller and smaller across five glass layers, creating the aforementioned contour effect, itself visually amplified by the translucent overlap effect of the stacked glass.
The five inner shapes resembled valleys and acted as small bowls, their varying size able to accommodate whichever food (or other) items worked best in each.

Execution

Above the five layers of each bowl was single piece of glass (all glass was waterjet cut), UV bonding the entire structure together. The minimal weight of the bowls meant that the finished product was sturdy and relatively light - an initial concern during development.Optional lasercut perspex lids for each of the five bowls allowed the platter to have items placed on top of it if needed, expanding functionality and offering a visual contrasting element, given composite colours are so extensive.

Viscous
  • Waterjet cut 4mm glass layers

  • UV bonding of layers

  • Modular, lasercut perspex lids

  • Small silicon feet on underside

We produced the Viscous platter prototype without issue, in smoked grey float glass. After the exhibition, and before we managed to get any decent photos of it, we loaned it to an Interior design office for temporary display, given we were doing some work for them. The owner promptly stole it before returning to Europe :/Final dimensions: 640 x 285 x 24mm

User Design


Contemporary furniture

Originally intended as an industrial design venture, User Design (co-founded) became a furniture and interior focussed company. We designed and produced our own products, for local and foreign markets, also taking on some bespoke commission work. These are some of the things we made.




Vytae
User Design
User Design
User Design

First off, the name. We're all users, of products and things. The user is at the center, an origin for design decisions to orient and rationalise around. There's a play on 'heavy' users - those for whom the desire to own or engage with something is so great, that it becomes an emotional attraction.
As a company, we wanted to make stuff unlike what was around at the time (2010 - 2015), with high end materials and detail oriented execution.

Next, the logo and brand media. A custom wordmark, lowercase 'user,' it sought to reflect how we envisioned the brand ethos - modern, strong, future embracing, and somewhat maximalist in treatment. Intentionally symmetrical, each end suggestive of action / reaction, cause and effect - interaction. The split letter 's', as well as maintaining visual symmetry, also conveyed this idea of interaction between person and item, people and environments.

Company business cards. Their design invites the eye into a 3D environment made from flat graphics, and conveys seeing things in different ways. Also emphasis on light and shadow.

Furniture

These are a couple of client commissioned concepts - starting with a modular series of faceted tables that come together to create a larger coffee table structure. Each of the five pieces would be treated in a different metal finish, together a seeming group of 'space rocks'.

A hallway table was also conceptualised, and though also only a proof of concept rendering, ultimately offered inspiration for other things. The table was intended to have contrasting brass plating against treated mild steel.

We initially released a range of six items, designed and manufactured in Johannesburg & Cape Town. They shared a similar aesthetic - hard edged, geometric and impactful, while retaining good usability (tested throughout prototyping). A key design theme was use of line and corresponding dynamism in appearance. Our love of contemporary architecture was and remains a big inspiration.

DELTA CHAISEWith a moulded fiberglass body (black, grey or white) and stainless steel legs, this product started as a side profile sketch and took a fair amount of refinement to get right. It was made to order and featured suede / leather cushions, with headrest and side cushions available optionally. And yes, it was comfortable, with plenty of ergonomic testing.

FORMAL SOFAInspired by origami, this sofa's aluminium framework appears to defy gravity from some angles. It's overall style follows the general feel described earlier, with a hard edged and clean final appearance. We eventually modified the design slightly, and also made shortened, sofa chair versions per client request.

460 COFFEE TABLEThis steel table (powdercoated satin or gloss) played with a twisting theme, with legs reaching for each corner. It also sought to compliment the origami inspired sofa we'd made at that time. The original design didn't have supports rising up to the underside of the table top, but were later added for increased rigidity.

TENSION SIDE TABLEA design that began with a hexagonal top, subsequently inspiring a doubled up leg structure that was CNC cut (steel) and bent to shape, the table explored geometric language in line with the range aesthtic we were developing. It was available in powdercoated colours, as well as brass plating, and came in two sizes.

USER ASHTRAY / VESSELA cement moulded ashtray that simply followed the geometric, faceted design language we had been playing with, they sat on CNC cut wooden bases. Their raw and tactile quality provided an architectural material feel to any environment in which they sat. Images to be updated.

SWITCH COFFEE TABLETaking its name from the overlapping leg structure, this coffee table had polished stainless steel framework with a bronze or smoke tinted glass top. The glass was secured with silicon pads on top of the legs' middle section, relying on weight as opposed to the originally planned UV bonding.

Vytae


Branding & packaging design

Vytae is an Italy based CBD oil & capsule producer - a fast growing industry that caters to physical & mental well being. The clients required a brand identity for their new business, from logo and graphic elements, to packaging and 3D visualisation. They sought a minimalist, pared down aesthetic, inspired in part by the intended biodegradable packaging.




Vytae

Vytae brand keywords


Nature
Care
Science
Sustainability

Logo development

There's a lot that can be optically drawn from these keywords, and while this offers broad creative scope, it also made locking down the preferred direction quite tricky.
Below are a few exploratory concepts.


The final logo began as a wordmark, itself based on customised type. The letter 'y' expands into a marijuana inspired geometric leaf, via added elements. It also began what would become a logo system, with each version being used within a given format.The emblem was also worked into a pattern design.


Packaging development

We began experimenting with some packaging concepts quite early on, once the logo system was established.
The colour palette was evolving through this period.

Vytae logo concept

Vytae

Required product / packaging items

1. Oil dropperbottle graphics
2. Capsule jarjar and box graphics
3. Capsule holdercase label
4. Capsule refillpack graphics
5. Shared product boxbox graphics

At this stage we had planned to box the oils, with these being some early experiments. Later, it was decided to package the oils and capsule jars together - at least during launch - given most buyers were more likely to try both.One of the intended product ranges was titled 'be' but later changed.

Vytae

Some of the concepts incorporated a 'V' or chevron shaped elements across the graphics. As well as tying into the name, they were intended to project the idea of physical and mental upliftment - calm against anxiety - with pattered lines/ elements contributing a soothing quality (this could also be extended to tactile box elements such as embossing).

Early capsule case labels were explored (see below), before it was determined that they be made from bioplastic entirely.


Final brand & packaging media


Your daily dose of well-being.

Vytae

The product range was simplified to two primary options for both the CBD oils and capsules:


Sleep /

With Hemp seed oil, Griffonia, Valerian, Lemon Balm and Passionflower.Useful for promoting a physiologically relaxing effect and a peaceful sleep.Food supplement
Rich in omega-3 and omega-6



Mood /

With hemp seed oil, Hypericum, Rhodiola and Rosemary.Useful for promoting a physiologically relaxing effect and mental well-being.Food supplement
Rich in omega-3 and omega-6


Colour system

Vytae

Pantone: 4247 C
#d1c1a8

Vytae

C: 57 / M: 53 / Y: 56 / K: 2
#66605B

Vytae

Pantone: Warm Gray 7 C
#968C83

Vytae

Pantone: 4223 CP
#686F4E


The final product vessels were sandblasted glass, complimenting the capsule jars' having bioplastic lids. These provided slight variation from sample to sample, which was in fact welcomed and contributed to the intended raw, minimalist aesthetic.

Vytae logo concept

We opted for a single box option to start, with several inlays to accommodate product configurations. The box exterior was extremely minimalist, with only the Vytae emblem and web address. While being in tune with the brand identity, this also made it easy to add new CBD products/ ranges within the existing packaging, modifying box inlay specification as needed.


The portable capsule case - intended to hold a number of capsules (lasting several days' consumption) - was made entirely from bioplastic. This complimented the jar lids, and offered a pleasantly raw tactile quality while holding them.


Vytae capsule case
Vytae refill pack

The sealable refill packs, all made from paper. The final brand tagline would be 'your daily dose of wellness'.

Vytae

Stationery

Again reflecting the same minimalism as the packaging, stationery was limited to just business cards, letterhead and email signature template.

Vytae
Vytae logo concept