The Glass Lab
The Glass Lab in Portland’s Innovation Quadrant was transformed from a former glass factory housed in a vintage two-story industrial building into a community-oriented creative hub for the next generation of creators and innovators.
The Challenge
The experiential graphic design team was challenged to create a brand identity, signage and wayfinding system that respects the building’s industrial heritage while reinterpreting for the next generation of creators and innovators. The new brand identity sought to express continuity of innovation- based fabrication, connecting people with the history of the original glass manufacturing while conveying a future- thinking ethos of technology, innovation and experimentation.
Project Vision
The brand identity, signage and wayfinding system respect the building’s industrial heritage while reinterpreting for the next generation of creators and innovators. The new brand identity connects people with the history of the original glass manufacturing while conveying a future-thinking ethos of technology, innovation and experimentation. Most prominently, the project features a large exterior supergraphic along the building façade, relating in scale to the expressed structure of the building and establishing The Glass Lab as a new innovative hub for the neighborhood.
Bold stenciling and cut-through lettering pay tribute to the building’s industrial heritage while celebrating its emerging spirit of innovation in craft manufacturing.
Josh Partee, Tryba Architects
Concrete floors, clean white walls, blackened steel details and birchwood accents informed the signage program’s primarily monochromatic material palette.
Josh Partee, Tryba Architects
The system employs geometric motifs inspired by functional marking but diverges from its historical use, instead signaling welcome and collaboration.
Josh Partee, Tryba Architects
Design + Execution
Concrete floors, clean white walls, blackened steel details and birchwood accents inform the signage program’s monochromatic material palette, with bursts of industrial yellow used throughout to mark key entry points to the building, amenity areas and suites. Throughout, bold stenciling and painted lettering pay tribute to the building’s industrial heritage while celebrating its emerging spirit of innovation in craft manufacturing. Geometric motifs inspired by functional markings diverge from their historical use, instead signaling welcome and collaboration. Most prominently, the project features a large supergraphic along the building façade.
Energetic graphic elements cross boundaries between individual suites and common spaces, establishing a sense of community and supporting collaboration among creators.
Josh Partee, Tryba Architects
The brand identity, signage and wayfinding system joins the building’s industrial heritage as a glass factory and location in a burgeoning innovation district for a new creative tech future.
Josh Partee, Tryba Architects
Portland artist Aden Catalani extended the environmental graphics with a custom mural at the main circulation stair.
Josh Partee, Tryba Architects
The system employs geometric motifs inspired by functional marking but diverges from its historical use, instead signaling welcome and collaboration.
Josh Partee, Tryba Architects
Project Details
This project works at a variety of scales and from a number of vantage points. It makes us curious. It makes us smile.
An industrial building that started out bland is repurposed and newly enlivened by signage and graphics that speak to its industrial roots.
Design Team
Josh Gluck (environmental graphic designer)
Tommy Matthews (environmental graphic designer)
Collaborators
Tube Art Group (signage fabrication and installation)
Security Signs (exterior super graphic)
Parts & Pieces, Inc. (wood wall with integrated logo)
Aden Catalani (created stairwell artwork/graphics)
Photo Credits
Josh Partee, Tryba Architects (photography)
Open Date
November 2019