In 2018, Champions Design worked with Dartmouth College to update the school brand. In 2024, the studio was brought back to campus to help rebrand the Hopkins Center for the Arts.
The Hop opened in 1962 during a time of significant social change in the United States. It entered as a boys-only campus dominated by business and engineering, and was launched as a home – on the college Green – where expression was allowed, even encouraged. Today, the Hop celebrates art as central to life but in a space much different than before as renovations and a new wing designed by architecture firm Snøhetta.
In preparation for the opening of The Hop, Champions was asked to build a brand system that would help tell the story of The Hop as an artery to the Arts at Dartmouth and amplify the Center, the school, the students, and their work worldwide.Identity, Motion All the school mailboxes were housed in The Hop building; every student since 1962 has passed through its halls.
Archival imagery from Rauner Special Collections Library.
Rendering by Snøhetta. The lettering for the college was drawn from local type designer Rudolph Ruzicka’s 1969 commemorative Dartmouth College Bicentennial Medal and plaque with additional reference from an alphabet shown in Ruzicka’s Studies in Type Design. Champions had worked with Jesse Ragan to develop the lettering in 2018. We worked with Jesse again to pick The Hop lettering directly out of the college wordmark. On average, The Hop produces 400 promotional pieces a year. Needing to accomodate artwork provided by the performers, the new design system streamlines production by way of a suite of shapes inspired by both the original architecture and the new addition. A possibly infinite number of configurations at every scale and proportion allow for the flexible system to fit every promotional poster, presentation, and social media graphic. The Hop frames can be used singularly, combined to form a new shape, or expanded and cropped to form a frame. They can hold type or image. And, when needed, they can serve as the image themselves.The Hop places the performer above all else. All promotional imagery is provided by the performer and meant to be amplified by the brand. Every event needs to look fresh and different and specific and – most importantly – appropriate to the story it was telling. Type, shape, and color work together to activate the canvas and draw an audience to the show, move people around the building, or telegraph departmental needs in equal measure. It’s a system that has to do it all. Klim Type Foundry’s National 2 meets the functional and experiential needs of syncing the system with the space. It includes historical references, like old style figures, but has a simplicity and clarity that is distinctly modern, which builds flexibility into the visual identity system. TeamPartner: Jennifer Kinon Creative Director: Michael McCaughley Designer: Michael Penda Strategist: Paulina Alvarado Serrano Producer: Haley Kattner Allen Lettering: Jesse Ragan
Hop Designer: Ashlee Robinson