Sinter Brand Identity
Sinter is a brand created by a consortium of several companies, led by ETMA, joining forces around metal sintering, the industrial process in which metal powder is compressed and then heated to just below its melting point, causing the particles to bond together and form a solid piece. The design challenge started from this very physical principle: turning a technical process, shared across several companies within the consortium but largely invisible to the public, into a single, recognizable visual language built on precision, craftsmanship and material honesty.
Sinter Brand Identity
Sinter is a brand created by a consortium of several companies, led by ETMA, joining forces around metal sintering, the industrial process in which metal powder is compressed and then heated to just below its melting point, causing the particles to bond together and form a solid piece. The design challenge started from this very physical principle: turning a technical process, shared across several companies within the consortium but largely invisible to the public, into a single, recognizable visual language built on precision, craftsmanship and material honesty.
Sinter Brand Identity
Sinter is a brand created by a consortium of several companies, led by ETMA, joining forces around metal sintering, the industrial process in which metal powder is compressed and then heated to just below its melting point, causing the particles to bond together and form a solid piece. The design challenge started from this very physical principle: turning a technical process, shared across several companies within the consortium but largely invisible to the public, into a single, recognizable visual language built on precision, craftsmanship and material honesty.
The Design
The symbol sits at the center of the entire identity: a cluster of small capsule-like shapes, in red, arranged around an invisible center, as if caught mid-motion of compaction. The construction process of the symbol, documented throughout the case study, reveals this logic clearly.
It starts from a simple radial grid, almost a technical diagram of points and axes, which progressively transforms into loose particles arranged in a ring and, finally, collapses into a dense, asymmetrical mass at the center. It is the sintering metaphor applied directly to the construction of the mark, from scattered to compact, from powder to piece, and, by extension, from several distinct companies into a single, cohesive brand.
That same logic repeats in the symbol's color gradation. The particles closest to the center carry a more saturated, solid red, while the outer ones dissolve into lighter, more translucent tones, suggesting density and depth, as if the heat concentrating at the core of the material were visible.
The logotype follows an equally rigorous logic. The letters of "SINTER" were drawn on an explicit modular grid, with a constant monolinear stroke and rounded terminals, the same formal vocabulary as the symbol's capsules, now extended into typography. The result is a geometric, technical wordmark, with a deliberately angular, unconventional "E" and "R" that reinforce the industrial character without falling into the visual clichés of the metalworking sector.
In its final application, the red symbol and the gray wordmark work as a two-piece system that can shift between full-color, grayscale or fully monochrome versions, always preserving the legibility of the symbol's core form, the true point of identity for the brand.
Taken as a whole, the Sinter project shows how an industrial process, and a consortium of companies built around it, can be translated into a single, coherent visual system. It does so without resorting to literal metaphors of metal, heat or machinery, finding instead its own language in the behavior of the particles that give the technique, and the brand, their name.
The logotype follows an equally rigorous logic. The letters of "SINTER" were drawn on an explicit modular grid, with a constant monolinear stroke and rounded terminals, the same formal vocabulary as the symbol's capsules, now extended into typography. The result is a geometric, technical wordmark, with a deliberately angular, unconventional "E" and "R" that reinforce the industrial character without falling into the visual clichés of the metalworking sector.
In its final application, the red symbol and the gray wordmark work as a two-piece system that can shift between full-color, grayscale or fully monochrome versions, always preserving the legibility of the symbol's core form, the true point of identity for the brand.
Taken as a whole, the Sinter project shows how an industrial process, and a consortium of companies built around it, can be translated into a single, coherent visual system. It does so without resorting to literal metaphors of metal, heat or machinery, finding instead its own language in the behavior of the particles that give the technique, and the brand, their name.
Social
© 2005 – 2026 Ricardo Silva
© 2005 – 2026 Ricardo Silva