Dwell is a design and technology brand launched with a magazine in October 2000 by CEO Lara Hedberg Deam, with architecture and design critic Karrie Jacobs as its first editor-in-chief. The company is based in San Francisco and publishes content on modern interior and architectural design. The Dwell wordmark is a lowercase, sans-serif logotype that has remained consistent through the brand’s editorial redesigns.
Design and History
The Dwell logo was created by egg communications, a Seattle-based firm, according to a first-person account published on Dwell’s own website. The same account describes the name and logo as “as good as anything created by Madison Avenue.” [1]
The United States Patent and Trademark Office registration for the DWELL wordmark describes the mark as “the word ‘dwell’ in all lower case, sans serif font, with the lower left corners of the letters ‘l’ cut at an angle from upper left to lower right.” The registration was filed in 2008 by Dwell Media LLC. [2]
In 2007, Dwell underwent a major editorial redesign that launched with the February 2008 issue. The redesign took about eight months. According to a Walker Art Center interview about the project, “the logo mark is solid and we didn’t have to start completely from scratch,” indicating the wordmark was retained rather than replaced during that redesign. [3]
Jeanette Abbink served as Dwell’s founding creative director, overseeing the magazine’s early visual identity. [4]
Typography and Design
The Dwell wordmark is set in an all-lowercase sans-serif typeface. The most distinctive documented feature is the angled cut on the lower left corners of the letter “l,” slanting from upper left to lower right. [2]
For the magazine’s internal typography, the redesign team worked with type designer Peter Bil’ak to create a monospaced version of a typeface for Dwell’s use. [3] The magazine’s main text typeface is FF Milo Serif, designed by Mike Abbink. [5]
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