FortyTwo Studio – Two Gongs at Scottish Design Awards 2023

Brand Identity Gold Award

We were very pleased to be nominated in the Brand Identity category for our brand work on Ebb & Upwell seaweed presses — rubbing shoulders with fantastic work by great agencies across Scotland — and on the night we were absolutely thrilled to pick up the Gold award from the judging panel.

Ebb & Upwell is the brand developed for the handmade seaweed presses produced and sold by Portia Knight — an artist who creates stunning giclée prints from drift seaweed, much of which she collects near her cottage on Scotland's north east coast.

Taking its name from the movement of the tides, Ebb & Upwell is a brand dedicated to the craft of seaweed pressing, and their signature press offers more and more people an opportunity to discover this artform.

“I approached FortyTwo with a passion project, and the team delivered a brand that expertly reflects my values and voice, effectively arming me with the tools and confidence to pursue opportunities and connect with markets that might otherwise have been out of reach.”

— Portia Knight, Founder/Artist

Chair's Award for Design Winner

Our joy and pride at picking up this coveted award was sent through the roof at the announcement that our Ebb & Upwell brand identity work had received the Chair's Award for Design — a prestigious honour that knocked our collective socks off, to say the least.

Awards Chair, Rod Gillies (Brand Director, Whyte & Mackay) said:

"It’s a beautiful piece of work – a great example of something which seems simple in its final execution but was obviously the result of painstaking attention-to-detail and careful consideration. The colours, the layout, the materials, and that emboss detail – just stunning. And the accompanying work around the central design was also lovely – fresh and clean, giving the motif room to breathe. I never knew seaweed-pressing was a thing until I saw this, and now I really want to dive in and find out what it’s all about”

Big Thank Yous

Huge thanks go to the Scottish Design Awards organisers and judges, our fellow nominees (cracking work, all round), James and Mark at Windmill Printing for making our work look this good in print, SNAP Studio for their stellar video work and especially to Portia Knight, our client, who we greatly admire and loved working with throughout the process.

See more of the Portia Knight and Ebb & Upwell brand identities on our project page and follow her on Instagram for the latest coastal dispatches, pressings and prints — @portiaknightseaweed / @ebbandupwell

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Got a project to discuss or interested to learn more about what we do? Contact info@fortytwo.studio to get the conversation started.