In an urgent push to launch just three weeks prior to Black Friday, we collaborated with You Have to Read This Now, a brand concept born by Stef and Ash on Instagram. Our goal was to commercialize their already well-loved brand concept and bridge the gap between ‘booktok’ and business.

The challenge was to develop a dynamic brand identity using only a wordmark. We approached this by selecting a dynamic serif base typography and customizing each letterform to create a blended design that could work well in stacked, horizontal, and abbreviated forms.

Our primary focus in shaping the whole identity was on crafting a brand experience that would not only appeal to avid readers but also foster a cult-like obsession with both the idea of getting lost in a book and with the collective community that You Have to Read This Now had already cultivated.

At every stage, we focused on emphasizing the shared experience of reading and honoring the unique voice and visual language developed by the founders.