ZLB Identity

A Library is many things to many people. Over thousands of years it has gone from an elite resource to a cultural equalizer, a social space. It is, like the new identity, a place of possibilities for everyone. It is open and accessible in the most basic sense. We can project on it what we might want and we can find within it most everything we need. It is very much like the internet in that it is an exchange.

ZLB is a place where people and information come together. It helps people meet information, it allows people to meet people and it lets people meet themselves. The new logo is about these connections, adjacencies and exchanges; about the library’s place in our networked urban society. When we put a heart next to a ‘Z’ and a the sun next to an ‘L’ people understand that they will find more than just what they seek.

The identity is a system. ZLB can choose a base black and white condition for letterhead, business cards and other non-public communications. For the public ZLB shows a dynamic approach, sometimes showing the endless possibilities and at other times having a logo with a specific theme, always with an emphasis on the Z, L and B. By way of example, If ZLB has a small concert the poster might have an identity that reflects the meting of music, books and people, with a note, a chair and a letter inside among the institutional letters. The identity has within it many variations.

The design addresses context beyond its nine points. It puts the Z, L and B with everything the library might offer, an infinite space. Books for a start but also art, coffee, virtual space, anything. All of this can be expressed by the logo. It can be both specific and general, like the library itself. Straight, the identity and the library are a stand-alone idea. Embellished, it speaks to the mix of familiar and unknown to be found within.

In collaboration with: Heimann und Schwantes