Design studio LoveFrom has completed a rebrand for William Stout Architectural Books in San Francisco, including a custom typeface, logo and a suite of whimsical illustrations for decorating bookmarks and other paraphernalia.
Stout Books has been a fixture in San Francisco’s Jackson Square neighbourhood since it was founded by architect Bill Stout in 1974 as an emporium dedicated to books about art, design and architecture.
The store’s new graphic identity was created by former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive, who founded LoveFrom with fellow industrial designer Marc Newson in 2019.
“I discovered Stout Books on my first visit to San Francisco back in 1989,” recalled Ive.
“I have such a deep affection for this bookshop and the extraordinary community that Bill lovingly created over five decades. It has been an honour to be able to make a contribution to an institution we love and value so profoundly.”
When Stout retired in 2022, the store was acquired by the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity – a public charity dedicated to advancing the legacy of 20th-century designers Ray and Charles Eames.
Ive offered LoveFrom’s services for free in order to support the store as it transitioned into new ownership.
His visual identity includes elements that reference Stout Books’ history, including a logotype that combines the name with the date of the store’s founding.
The use of black, white and red as the basis for the refreshed colour palette was informed by the shop’s original enamel sign, which forms part of an archive documenting the past 50 years.
LoveFrom worked with Bill Stout to look back through old catalogues, maps, gift cards and stationery to provide inspiration for a scalable content system.
The original sign had been painted using the Washington font, which was developed around the time the store opened.
With permission from the typeface’s creator, Russell Bean, LoveFrom’s designers developed a modern version called LF Washington that is used across the store’s various print and digital assets.
To bring a sense of personality to aspects of the visual identity, LoveFrom commissioned illustrator Satoshi Hashimoto to create a series of drawings, including depictions of Stout himself.
The characterful illustrations feature on branded material such as tote bags and bookmarks, as well as forming a key part of the store’s updated website.
Visitors to the Stout Books homepage encounter an image of the shop’s storefront that changes subtly to match the seasons, with the gingko tree in the foreground losing its foliage in winter as festive lights appear around the building’s entrance.
A small bird incorporated into the various scenes provides a link to the Eameses, who frequently used this motif in their work. The illustrated bird also functions as a hyperlink that directs users to the Eames Institute website.
The organisation first reached out to Stout after learning that he was considering selling his personal library of architectural books and decided that owning the bookshop would allow it to preserve an important creative hub in the city.
The charity looks after an archive comprising over 40,000 artefacts from the Eames’s career, which it is working to catalogue and preserve while making it accessible to other institutions and the public through loans, exhibitions and a digital portal.
LoveFrom was founded by Ive and Newson as a multidisciplinary agency that combines work for clients such as Ferrari and Airbnb with pro bono projects and property development, including acquiring around $90 million of real estate in Jackson Square.
The studio’s previous projects include a logo for the coronation of King Charles III and a range of Moncler outerwear featuring magnetic closures.
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