Case Study · 02
LAPL
The Los Angeles Public Library has 73 locations and a website in 15 languages. Ask someone to picture it, though, and they’ll describe one building downtown. I wanted to see what the library looks like when it belongs to the whole city.
01 · Tension
Say “LA library” and most people see the Central Library: the tiled pyramid, the rotunda, the building that opened in 1926. It’s beautiful, but it’s one address. There are 72 other branches spread across the city, and the website alone runs in 15 languages. A single logo can’t cover that much ground. It says one thing, in one voice, at one size. So the brief I gave myself was a brand that could show up at any branch door, in any script, and still be recognized from a corner of it.
Position · Thesis
Open to All of Los Angeles. Belonging Before Becoming.
02 · Source
I started with the visual language and let the logo come last. The source is the Central Library itself, because no other city has that building. I drew eight of its details as shapes, then narrowed them down to four. I built the system with AI assistance, and I wrote it so a designer or an AI tool can pick it up and use it.
03 · Alphabet
The alphabet is four letters and two moves. The letters are Tile, Slope, Curve and Point. The moves are Make, which sets letters down with a gap between them, and Cut, which takes them away flush. Everything else in the system is built from those six pieces.
04 · Vocabulary
Letters combine into words. The most important word is the Step, which is also the mark: whole letters set in a field with a stair cut from one corner. It has a version for every size, from a 24 px avatar to the side of a bus. The same letters build the library’s pictograms.
05 · Grammar
Five rules hold the system together, from a library card to a language switcher. I kept them loose on purpose. They set the edges and leave the actual design to whoever is using them.
The rules
- R1The step never rounds. Buttons and chips stay square to match it.
- R2Any shape from the alphabet is allowed, as long as it sits on the grid.
- R3The block never drops below 32 px. Under that, a single L. Under 24, only the step.
- R4Optical sizes match across every script, not just Latin.
- R5State colors live apart from the brand palette.
06 · Bridge
The step also sets the corners on every button and chip, which is why nothing in the interface is rounded. Design tokens carry the palette from primitives all the way into the product, and every line of text on screen meets AAA contrast.
Tokens · Primitives → Semantic → Field modes
07 · Formats
I picked the three formats most likely to break it: the library card, a branch flyer that has to work in several languages, and the catalog screen. Then I took it outside with a centennial campaign on billboards and the side of a bus.
08 · Generated
The last test was work nobody drew. These blocks were generated straight from the rules, and they’re good enough to ship. One building gave the shapes. All 73 doors get to use them.
Speculative studio project · Not affiliated with the Los Angeles Public Library
Next Project · 03
HookA speculative brand identity for K–8 AI literacy, built on the conviction that command of AI is now a more important inheritance than command of code.
