Many projects come and go, with tight deadlines and quick turnarounds feeling ingrained to the creative world. However, there are some projects that stick around or clients that keep returning, and what started as a one-off evolves into a long-term commitment, full of ups and downs.

To get an idea of what’s involved in a long-term project we speak to design studio Sawdust about their ongoing typographic work with Wired UK; photographer Alessandra Sanguinetti about her decades-long project following the lives of two cousins in Argentina; and Nick Hulley and Nadja Lossgott at AMV BBDO about what it’s like running the global account for Guinness.

JONATHAN QUAINTON AND ROB GONZALEZ, SAWDUST: WIRED UK

Together Jonathan Quainton and Rob Gonzalez run Sawdust, a London-based studio that creates bespoke typefaces and identities for a range of clients including Apple, the New York Times, Nike and many more. One of their long-standing clients is Wired UK. “I think our first project was to design a series of headers for a feature article about the latest tech in medicine, that was 2014,” says Gonzalez. 

Since then, Sawdust has worked with the magazine on a number of different briefs from bespoke typography for single articles to entire issues, display typefaces, type-based images and wordmarks. “We’ve mostly worked with creative director Andrew Diprose and art director Mary Lees, who are always trying to push the bar,” says Gonzalez. “Those are the types of people who you want to work with in our industry.”