This website was designed and built by Russel Quadros, using Webflow, a visual website builder. This is the third iteration, and was launched in December 2020.
The fonts being used are: GT Pressura and GT Pressura Mono (for navigation, buttons, and card titles) by Grilli Type; Korpus (for headlines) and Korpus Grotesk (for body text) by Binnenland.
All brands have a story to tell, and Temper is no different. When starting the business, choosing a name felt like the detail that would set the tone for the entire brand. The only prerequisites were that it should be short and have meaning in the context of design. Brand design is about affecting measurable change and effecting feelings about a brand. By definition, the word “temper” felt like a perfect fit.
As a noun, temper is about emotion and control. You’re either losing your temper: getting angry or frustrated, and being unable to control your emotional state — or you’re holding your temper: staying calm or relaxed, and maintaining a sense of control. That resonates because design and creativity aim to incite an emotional reaction.
As a verb, temper means to change the composition of something by either adding or removing elements to alter the makeup of a substance. That action strengthens or weakens, hardens or softens, but the desired outcome is intentional. We methodically refine what needs to be communicated to reflect a brand authentically.
With a name like Temper, we didn’t want to play up any negative connotations. So the wordmark is set in all lowercase, using a customized version of GT Pressura. Being a digital-minded brand design firm, we picked a typeface with the characteristics of a digital face, and with soft letterforms. The repetition of the letter at the beginning and end also speaks to the process of transformation — starting with one form and changing how it’s perceived at the end.
GT Pressura could have served as the perfect workhorse typeface for the entire brand, but it felt necessary for the visual voice to have the ability to change feel and tone. That’s why having a serif, and sans-serif pairing was ideal. Enter Korpus and Korpus Grotesk. These typefaces were designed to work together, and they also had similar proportions and characteristics to our new logo (i.e. slightly taller letterforms, and soft, rounded corners). The foundry took inspiration from the print world — looking at fuzzy details and imprecisions in the letters that occurred in the reproduction process (via lead casting, typesetting, phototypesetting, and printing). Having a typeface that was mostly going to be seen digitally, but feel like the printed word, was a welcome dichotomy to the brand.
For the last five years, the design relied solely on the typography to define the visual brand. With this iteration of the website, we adopted the softness seen in the wordmark (using rounded corners on imagery) and embraced a brand device derived from the shape found in its letterforms.
The icon is also a new addition to the brand. Visually it’s reminiscent of an abstract capital T, but conceptually it’s a combination of a plus sign and a minus sign. Referring back to the definition of the name, it’s about positive and negative emotions, or the addition/subtraction of elements to change the form of a substance. Combining these symbols signifies finding a balance between two extremes.
To: Jessi Hall, my first part-time contractor + collaborator + partner, who helped me get the business organized and off the ground. My first year’s success would not have been anything if not for her conviction, honesty, diligence, and smart approach to brand management.
To: Dan Nehring, my second part-time (almost full-time) collaborator + business partner, whose disciplined work-ethic, humor, and thoughtful writing, gave our work a finesse that exceeded my capabilities. Having a teammate that sees eye-to-eye made the work worth doing and doing well.
To: Amy Ploss-Samson, my go-to photographer, and the creative mind behind all the photoshoots I insisted upon to document my work. Her generosity and kindness is hard to repay (I’ll always be in debt). She always gave more effort than required and could always be creative on the spot — my art direction was barely needed, and she always had the eye to make a shot 10x better than I could conjure up.
Last but definitely not least, to every selfless person that’s referred work, regardless of whether it panned out. In particular those who have done it several times over. I can’t thank you enough: Dennis Eusebio, Varick Rosete, Dan Nehring, Amy Ploss-Samson, Karen Kurycki, Katy Garrison, Jessi Hall, Caleb Sylvest, Jayne Evans, Sarah-Marie Johnston, David Cohen, Jason Fisher + Greg Beere ... there’s probably more I’m forgetting (if that’s you, sorry, but my sincerest, heartfelt thanks).
Special thanks to Josh Silverman, and Arianna Orland, for their guidance, insight, and patient advice as I revamped this site.