Josie Marks
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 Sasaki Branding Initiatives

3D print, acrylic
Various sizes
Fabrication, graphic design
Sasaki

Programs: Adobe Illustrator, Rhino 3D, Bambu Studio, Aspire
Equipment:  3D printer, CNC




As part of a larger office revamp and a return-to-office initiative at Sasaki, I led a project to design and fabricate a set of initials for each employee’s desk. These initials aimed to lend a sense of personalization and belonging to the newly implemented assigned seating. Thank you to Liam Scott, Shemar Stewart, Jay Nothoff, Doug Larence, Caitlyn Clauson, Pablo Savid-Buteler, Jenya Zhilina, and Debbie Wallis for your support. 

These initials went through several phases of iteration before landing on a final design. The original idea was to create an acrylic nameplate held in a 3D-printed Sasaki logo stand. The Sasaki logo is a custom typeface built from a set of colorful “noodles.” These noodles were also to be used as part of the nameplate design.


Prototyping and ideating:


After much testing, we decided against this option and explored displaying employee initials rather than full names. Each letter was set in the custom Sasaki typeface to align with the company’s brand identity. We decided to print these letters on the second surface of acrylic, backed with a white channel for opacity. The acrylic was CNC milled into the shape of each letter. This did not achieve the desired results because the mill’s drill bit radius caused fillets on each inside corner, revealing the graphic’s bleed and not producing accurate letter geometry.

Next, we considered a 3D printed option, and I redesigned the Sasaki logoface colors to align with available filaments. I constructed the letter geometry in Rhino, building a skeleton to connect the noodles and give the letters structure. I enabled several organizational strategies to give order to the fabrication process at such a large scale. The final product produced initials for about 250 employees, adding up to almost 600 letters that were constructed from 2-6 3D printed pieces each. I update these letters quarterly, creating initial sets for each new employee.

Since then, fabrication-based branding projects have expanded and evolved through new initiatives. The positive feedback from the initials has excited further collaboration between the Fabrication Studio and firm branding projects. For example, I fabricated a large sign in the same manner for the marketing and communications team. This sign is now displayed on Sasaki’s table at each conference attended. 

 Assembly:





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