Rebrand of a 40-year old arts organization at a point of transformation.
YoungArts visual brand did not adequately represent its mission of identifying exceptional young artists and providing them with a lifetime support. To address this, the organization needed a new brand identity that was distinctive, meaningful, adaptable, and easily identifiable. I advocated for the rebrand and led the effort, from its inception to completion, which included setting the budget, timeline, and process, as well as choosing vendors, engaging stakeholders, obtaining approvals, supervising the implementation, and ensuring compliance with brand standards.
Legendary designer Paula Scher and her team at Pentagram created a bold and contemporary visual identity that captures the spirit of YoungArts and its mission to nurture, cultivate and support artists throughout their careers.
The new identity centers on a wordmark held by a set of brackets, a graphic motif that conveys what is special about the foundation—that it identifies a select group of emerging artists, brings them into a diverse and dynamic community, and stays with them as a support system throughout their artistic lives.
A bright and expressive color palette adds vibrancy to the system, and the brackets of the logo can be used to form graphic patterns and iconography.
The framework can be easily extended to various programs and initiatives, making them immediately recognizable as part of YoungArts.
The update also introduces a new official name, YoungArts, shortened from National YoungArts Foundation. The logo is accompanied by a new tagline—The National Foundation for the Advancement of Artists—that evokes the organization’s original name (National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts) while clarifying its mission to support artists and the people who make art.
In addition to the rebrand, I also led the redesign of the website including: establishing the budget, process and timeline; selecting the developer; engaging stakeholders and securing approvals; conceptualizing the wireframes and content; creating the visual content; and building many of the web pages.
Roles
Brand Strategy
Creative Strategy
Creative Leadership
Project Management
Credits
Pentagram Partner: Paula Scher
Project team: Emily Atwood, Jack Roizental
Web Developer/Designer: Frank LaRocca