The Glass Lab
The Glass Lab in Portland’s Innovation Quadrant was transformed from a former glass factory housed in a vintage two-story industrial building into a community-oriented creative hub for the next generation of creators and innovators.
The Challenge
The experiential graphic design team was challenged to create a brand identity, signage and wayfinding system that respects the building’s industrial heritage while reinterpreting for the next generation of creators and innovators.
The new brand identity sought to express continuity of innovation- based fabrication, connecting people with the history of the original glass manufacturing while conveying a future- thinking ethos of technology, innovation and experimentation.
Project Vision
The brand identity, signage and wayfinding system respect the building’s industrial heritage while reinterpreting for the next generation of creators and innovators.
The new brand identity connects people with the history of the original glass manufacturing while conveying a future-thinking ethos of technology, innovation and experimentation. Most prominently, the project features a large exterior supergraphic along the building façade, relating in scale to the expressed structure of the building and establishing The Glass Lab as a new innovative hub for the neighborhood.
Photo Credit: Josh Partee, Tryba Architects
Bold stenciling and cut-through lettering pay tribute to the building’s industrial heritage while celebrating its emerging spririt of innovation in craft manufacturing.
Photo Credit: Josh Partee, Tryba Architects
Concrete floors, clean white walls, blackened steel details and birchwood accents informed the signage program’s primarily monochromatic material palette.
Photo Credit: Josh Partee, Tryba Architects
The system employs geometric motifs inspired by functional marking but diverges from its historical use, instead signaling welcome and collaboration.
Design & Execution
Concrete floors, clean white walls, blackened steel details and birchwood accents inform the signage program’s monochromatic material palette, with bursts of industrial yellow used throughout to mark key entry points to the building, amenity areas and suites.
Throughout, bold stenciling and painted lettering pay tribute to the building’s industrial heritage while celebrating its emerging spirit of innovation in craft manufacturing. Geometric motifs inspired by functional markings diverge from their historical use, instead signaling welcome and collaboration. Most prominently, the project features a large supergraphic along the building façade.
Photo Credit: Josh Partee, Tryba Architects
Energetic graphic elements cross boundaries between individual suites and common spaces, establishing a sense of community and supporting collaboration among creators.
Photo Credit: Josh Partee, Tryba Architects
The brand identity, signage and wayfinding system joins the building’s industrial heritage as a glass factory and location in a burgeoning innovation district for a new creative tech future.
Portland artist Aden Catalani extended the environmental graphics with a custom mural at the main circulation stair.
Photo Credit: Josh Partee, Tryba Architects
The system employs geometric motifs inspired by functional marking but diverges from its historical use, instead signaling welcome and collaboration.
Slideshow
The Glass Lab
A large exterior supergraphic along the building façade establishes The Glass Lab as a new innovative hub for the neighborhood.
Bold stenciling and cut-through lettering pay tribute to the building’s industrial heritage while celebrating its emerging spririt of innovation in craft manufacturing.
Concrete floors, clean white walls, blackened steel details and birchwood accents informed the signage program’s primarily monochromatic material palette.
The system employs geometric motifs inspired by functional marking but diverges from its historical use, instead signaling welcome and collaboration.
Energetic graphic elements cross boundaries between individual suites and common spaces, establishing a sense of community and supporting collaboration among creators.
The brand identity, signage and wayfinding system joins the building’s industrial heritage as a glass factory and location in a burgeoning innovation district for a new creative tech future.
Portland artist Aden Catalani extended the environmental graphics with a custom mural at the main circulation stair.
The system employs geometric motifs inspired by functional marking but diverges from its historical use, instead signaling welcome and collaboration.