Can you believe that next year Design Miami will be celebrating its 20th anniversary? It’s true! With venues in Miami, Basel, Shanghai, and—as of October 17th—Paris, we are fast approaching the 40th edition of the fair. Through it all, Design Miami has maintained a reputation for being one of the freshest and most engaging events on the international arts-and-culture circuit.

This achievement owes much to Made Thought, the talented London-based creative agency that originated the defining element of our brand, the 60° forward slash, in 2006. Over the intervening years, Made Thought has gone on to create a novel identity—including graphic themes, formal vocabularies, and color palettes—for every event we have ever produced. These ephemeral yet unforgettable identities shine forth across our invitations, signage, tshirts, and more, ensuring our brand always feels of-the-moment and fueling the energy that keeps our community coming back.

With Design Miami/ Paris 2023 opening in two weeks and Design Miami/ 2023 following two months later, we sat down with Alistair Webb, Creative Director at Made Thought, to illuminate the design thinking and processes behind the arresting identities that the agency designed for our next two shows.

Design Miami/ How would you encapsulate Made Thought’s approach to visual storytelling?

Alistair Webb/ 
To create a compelling and clear story as a designer, you need to cultivate a deep connection with the subject and the story you want to tell. Because the feeling of that narrative is what you project outwards with the designs you create. Emotion is a pivotal driver of behavior in audiences and brands—it convinces and mobilizes people.

That is why we believe in designing feeling first. The emotional resonance that a piece of design leaves you with is timeless. It connects on a deeper level, creating greater longevity, desirability, and memorability.

DM/Made Thought creates a new identity for each Design Miami iteration. What is that process of creation like? How do you create something unique yet on-brand each time?

AW/There is a continual process of refinement—starting from a rough outline, a material, an idea, a word, or any source of inspiration, which we then craft into the final design. I’m always inspired by the creative explorations I undertake whilst away from the computer—like working with ceramics, where an idea and object is physically shaped over time from an amorphous block to an intentional and deliberate form with a clear personality and purpose.

We strive to incorporate that same unpredictability and organic ideation into Made Thought’s creative process. We make it as messy, playful, and exploratory as possible whilst unearthing as many ways as we can to ensure the final idea is both the clearest and the most emotive it can be. Along the way, we always try to discover the “new” in the brand, even if we’ve worked with it for two decades. As Carl Jung said, “The creation of something new is not accomplished by intellect but by play and instinct…”

As much as we believe that chaos is where ideas are found and formed, we also really believe in the compelling clarity of consistency, which comes from establishing iconic elements for each brand. These two facets, order and disorder, have been foundational to the work that Made Thought has created for Design Miami over the years.

Establishing ordered familiarity and iconicity through a striking visual device—like Design Miami’s forward slash—roots a brand and allows it to constantly evolve and sustain its cultural relevance. In Design Miami’s case, this foundation allows us to creatively respond to and express the curatorial themes of the fair each season, in each location.

DM/Can you tell us about the identity for Paris—Design Miami’s first show in the French capital? What are the Paris identity’s key elements, and what story do they tell?

AW/When introducing a brand to a new audience, we believe it’s important to clearly establish its iconic codes and reflect its truths in an arresting and confident way. In Design Miami’s case, the forward slash is always a key component of any fair identity, but importantly for Paris we felt that it needed to take center stage and communicate the brand’s power.

The guiding concept for this year's launch in Paris was the magnetic attraction that Design Miami brings to any destination—drawing gallerists, creatives, collectors, and enthusiasts into the fair’s orbit and holding their gaze through its distinct curatorial eye. So if we are to talk about order and disorder again, the Paris identity underscores the magnetic force of the forward slash as it disrupts the intentionally bold and statuesque typographic arrangements of each communication. This disruptive irreverence is representative of the alternative energy, progressive attitude, and playful spirit of Design Miami as an institution.

The venue for Design Miami/ Paris, L’hôtel de Maison, provided a wealth of inspiration—the awe inspiring level of craftsmanship and Alice in Wonderland-like labyrinth of Rococo architecture. Wanting to leave the full reveal of the space to the actual fair experience, we hint at the highly ornate and opulent environment through reflections captured within the gold forward slash. The combination of bold modernism, light-hearted iconoclasm, and decorative opulence create a new expression for Design Miami that feels fresh and exciting, whilst clearly connecting to the lineage of the brand.

DM/Same questions for the Miami show: What are the Miami identity’s key elements, and what story do they tell?

AW/Creating identities for Design Miami’s home, Miami, always offers an opportunity to play with the brand's core codes in ways we might not be able to in other locations. In its home city, the brand recognition is well established, so we can really challenge the conventional limits of those codes.

This year's identity was designed to be the entry point into a compelling and diverse curatorial perspective, one that bridges local, global, societal, and environmental narratives past and present to mark a moment in time—where we stand today. The concept required us to create real focus and lean into our belief that brand power resides in simplicity.

The interconnected world envisaged in the curatorial vision was distilled down to one thing in our minds: exchange. The idea that no object, no individual, and no movement stands alone in the timeline of design; that everything is connected and in constant exchange. This exchange is represented through the brand's iconic forward slash subverted from its typically modernist and graphic representation toward a more organic, fluid treatment.

The Miami identity’s eclectic color palette—a combination of electric pastels and the deep earth tones—connects to the warmth and subtlety of humanity as well as to the vibrancy and energy of Miami. The colors play against one another to create collision, harmony, and transience.

The dynamic and disordered representation of the forward slash is juxtaposed against the rigor and control of highly constructed typographic layouts that communicate key information. This playful tension again reflects the core values of the fair, whilst weaving in seasonal newness. ◆

Follow Made Thought on Instagram @made_thought

And discover more about the identities that Made Thought designed for our upcoming shows by visiting in person. Click through to the Paris and Miami show pages for event information.