First, a logo was created appropriate for an iconoclastic downtown institution with an agenda not based on traditional notions of beauty or modernity, but rather new ideas about art, artists, curation—new ideas about what makes a museum relevant. ‘New Art, New Ideas’. Then, more than just an identity, a total brand system was developed built on information transparency that removed subjectivity from the institution’s messaging, focusing squarely on the art, the ideas, and what was literally ‘new’.

Collateral design was literally systematized. All museum messaging content-types were defined and permanently sequenced. Regardless of medium or purpose, collateral would then include as many of those content-types as necessary, and present them in their predetermined order, at a single size, in a single typeface. Any colors desired could be selected (or eliminated) to aesthetically contrast or complement content or context, and images inserted (or not) into the system in their pre-determined place in the sequence. This final grouping would then be placed between the ‘new:’ and ‘museum’ of the logo, scaled as desired, and the work was complete.

An objective visual language concept as much about process as form. A clear and recognizable voice for the most contemporary art museum in New York.

Agency: Wolff Olins, New York
Creative Director: Weston Bingham
Designers: Weston Bingham, Olivier Chetelat, Bill Darling, Lily Williams
Strategists: Weston Bingham, Eric Scott

Architecture Partner: SANAA, Tokyo