Public, art that moves.

Identity, art direction, and product for a contemporary art auction platform. From typography to the online catalog, a system designed to let the artworks breathe.

Public is a platform for buying contemporary art at auction. Almost everything a visitor sees there is somebody else's work. So the question was simple. How much should the brand say, and when should it get out of the way?

We made a system that steps back so the art can breathe: one serif, a lot of white space, thin outlines. The paintings fill the frame and do the talking. The brand only speaks up where it's useful, to tell you what a piece is, what it costs and whether you can still have it.

The logo is the word Public taken apart. Its six letters sit in a small ring, P at the top and the rest following around the circle. In white, it lands on a sky or a cliff like a stamp, light enough to sit on a painting without covering it.

For motion we pulled the letters back out of the ring. In a short loop they take turns filling the whole frame, large and white, with a landscape showing through around them. One letter at a time.

The catalogue opens on "All listings", with filters as simple pills. Each card carries a lot number like PB-001 in one corner and a status in the other: available, reserved, new or sold. Below the image there's a title, an artist and a price. That's all. The picture gets most of the card.

On the page for a single piece, the painting takes the whole screen. One soft bar floats over it and reads "Acquire this piece", with the price and shipping included. The artist index is a few lines of names in the serif, set in grey. The name you're on turns black and a painting appears beside it.

Identity, art direction and product are built from the same few pieces, and every screen asks the same thing of the brand: say what's needed, then step back.