“The stakes are higher”: Regular Practice on reaching maturity with its updated studio

Regular Practice is a studio that continues to go from strength to strength. For starters, the studio was named as one of It’s Nice That’s Ones to Watch 2019 – where, at the time, the two founders Tom Finn and Kristoffer Halse Sølling had recently graduated from the RCA and decided to launch a business together. A few months down the line and they stunned us once again with their creative typographic response to Uniqlo’s Ultra Light Down range, proving their experimental approach to materiality, tools and forms, as well as their unmatched synchronicity with their new studio. And now, they’re back again; but this time around, things have evolved on a greater scale than ever before.

Not only has Regular Practice grown to a team of seven, but it’s also launched a new website and developed a matured approach to the types of work it onboards. “We’ve been getting up to all kinds of things,” says Tom. “There’s been an incremental transformation of how and with whom we work, something that’s happened organically while also being nudged along by us. It felt particularly apparent when lockdown happened in the UK and some projects shut down while others appeared out of nowhere.” Expanding the team, Tom explains, feels like a “big difference” and a move that’s been highly rewarding. “It’s also just been necessary.” The studio can now take on a wider range of projects compared to before, and it’s also had some breathing room to test and adapt its approach to all sorts of situations. “Where two years ago we would probably be designing a cultural thing in the UK,” Tom continues, “it’s more likely we’re designing a DTC brand in America or France now.”

Additionally, and somewhat unintentionally, the studio has also steered more towards branding. Less of an active decision, it’s a move that aligns with the team’s decision to pursue projects that offer a more creative involvement and can expand their skillet far beyond graphic design. “It feels more meaningful to be able to take a wider creative approach to a project, and we have found that it’s more often possible when we frame our approach using the word branding,” explains Kristoffer. By combining creative strategy, copywriting and creative direction into one succinct package, the studio is able to deliver a high standard across the entire breadth of its output – “and the graphic design we deliver can better integrates and helps the overall ambitions of the project,” continues Kristoffer.

This new outlook has simultaneously affected the Regular Practice visual language. But rather than adhering to one specific house style, the studio adapts itself and its process to the needs of the brief – working the best way possible for each individual project. “This also satisfies our urge to not repeat ourselves, to not get stuck in a specific style,” adds Tom. “There’s a freedom in delivering something totally different from one project to the next.” Whether it’s packaging, e-commerce, tech, motion, architecture or fashion, the studio approaches the brief with attention and experimentation. Recently, for example, the team signed off a project earlier this year for Andaman House – a luxury resort in Southeast Asia. In search of a younger audience and wanting to appeal to families, the resort reached out to Regular Practice with a brief of making the hotel’s personality “more friendly” and “one akin to a local village rather than a multiplex,” says Kristoffer.

By looking at approachability (rather than pretension), the design kicked off with the village’s environment: “We drew a bespoke headline typeface to be cast physically in metal, in turn influencing the architecture of the letterforms through intensified ink-traps and extended ligatures,” says Tom. The identity is slick, minimal and clean, representative of its luxury background while also being legible and approachable for all. It also features everything from signage to numbering across the village, as well as staff uniforms, room card-holders, welcome packs and more.

Another project saw the studio work with Juiced, a food-based talent management company that was in search of a “new type of ‘celebrity’ chef’,” adds Kristoffer. With this mind, Regular Practice was tasked to build a youthful, social media-savvy identity that shines a light on its craft – a harmonious balance of professionalism and playfulness. The result sees an Instagram-able J-Lemon-Water logo mark, plus a series of custom-made emojis to go alongside the bespoke typeface – “calling on sturdy and serious traditional serifs in its construction, while incorporating energetic and lively moments of typographic playfulness throughout,” says Tom.

Regular Practice is on an exciting (and mature) new path, and we’re all for it. “There’s more sale, more output, longer (sometimes) timelines and added economical incentive and pressure, but all of those aspects also add up to our work feeling more important and impactful,” continues Kristoffer. “The stakes are higher.”