Harvard Art Museums Identity
Design 2×4
Typeface Design Atelier Carvalho Bernau & Ian Party (B&P Typefoundry)

“In 2007 it was announced that Harvard Art Museum would be undergoing a major architectural transformation This physical shift would provide an opportunity to enact a conceptual shift; to clarify and create a new institutional name and graphic identity system.

The new identity portrays a unified but dynamic institution with constituent partners. The slash is a typographic device that signifies the connection between the core and the component, the system is flexible for other centers, functions, programs and purposes.

The visual aspect of the identity aims to create a dynamic play between modernity and classicism. Portrayed in the use of two typefaces, the use of black for typography and a respect for image as object, the visual identity is without rules a such but more that it is organized around a principle.”

Whilst these /images originate from the OK-RM website, the redesign of the Harvard Art Museums identity is largely credited to New York-based studio 2×4. You may also be interested to know that the rather slick Harvard Art Museums wordmark and the secondary typeface in their printed materials was designed and customised by Atelier Carvalho Bernau.