500 – custom typography

Talouselämä is one of the major economy magazines in Finland. They publish an annual Top 500 companies in Finland -issue and wanted me to design the number 500 for this year’s cover.

After some sketching we decided to go for the isometric perspective look. The text “500” itself isn’t typographically the most interesting, since two out of three numbers are the same, but the “extra dimension” in the perspective gave it some more possibilities. I made some cubes and piled them up for the basic forms, which were then refined further. After the forms were for the most part ready I added some details in “impossible perspective”, so the letters could be seen as from two different viewpoints. It’s a small detail but a nice added bonus, if someone spots it.  The red color is the main color of the magazine and the gray tones are also used frequently.