Identity as Infrastructure: How Span’s Design Shapes Culture, Institutions, and Public Life

At the heart of contemporary design is a fundamental question: How do visual systems shape the institutions and collective life that define a place? During this talk, partners John Pobojewski, Bud Rodecker, and Nick Adam of Span will examine design not as surface expression, but as a structural force that informs civic belief, cultural meaning, and institutional practice.

Through a conversation grounded in recent work, the talk explores how identity systems operate as infrastructural frameworks, connecting audiences to ideas, anchoring organizations within their communities, and extending design’s impact beyond discrete objects into the shared fabric of public life. Case studies spanning cultural platforms, educational environments, and civic collaborations reveal how typographic systems, editorial structures, and visual languages shape perceptions of authority, belonging, and purpose.

Rather than framing identity as a logo or brand asset, Span positions it as identity as a public system operating across cultural, institutional, and civic contexts. The talk invites designers, architects, and civic leaders to reconsider identity as a form of cultural construction—scaffolding shared meaning, institutional resilience, and participation over time.

About Span

Span is a studio crossing the boundaries of communication design in all mediums.

Their work is focused on challenging expectations with wit, logic, and a playful spirit. Blending typographic discipline with fearless expression, they elevate the role of the visual message in both culture and community. Span takes the long view—in every gesture and every project.

They see their design practice as a research and development lab both for their clients’ needs and for their own inquiry. They strive to discover innovative ways to increase impact in the art of communication through imagination and experimentation. They experiment with new models for sustainability that weave together equality, inclusiveness, and environmentalism as an ethos for success in both their work and their studio.

Span has been featured by the international media including Wired Magazine, The Economist, Smithsonian Magazine, US News and World Report, and the Associated Press. The studio has also received recognition from the design profession in Communication Arts, Brand New, the Society of Typographic Arts, and the Type Directors Club among others.