Studio Museum in Harlem’s New Branding Presents Its Identity as a ‘Community-Centered Institution and Globally Minded Place Where Black Art Lives’

New Studio Museum in Harlem letterhead displays the institution’s new logo. | Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem

THE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM has a new look and feel. The museum introduced new branding, including a bold new graphic identity, custom typeface called “Studio Museum Black,” and redesigned website. Building on its mission as a nexus for artists of African descent and site for the exchange of ideas about art and society, the museum described the branding as “a new identity for a storied institution where Black art (celebrates, connects, educates, impacts, inspires, illuminates, represents, and shifts culture),” an institution where “Black Art Lives.”

A new logo anchors the vision, communicating the Studio Museum’s role as a beacon of community and culture in Harlem. Stacking the words in the name of the museum on three lines creates a stepped effect, a “figurative stoop” referencing the neighborhood’s historic architecture and the design of its new building, currently under construction on 125th Street.

The new branding will be introduced across all of the museum’s platforms, appearing on forthcoming building signage, advertising, Studio Magazine, digital communications, social media, and retail merchandise, as well as stationery, invitations, tickets, member cards, business cards, press releases, and more.

After revealing the identity in Studio Magazine on Oct. 27, and distributing a press release on Nov. 2, the museum is hosting an official brand launch party this evening, an invitation-only affair.

“Just as our building will further enable us to serve our artist community, the dynamic brand and website will allow us to consistently communicate the work and ideas so central to our mission,” said Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of the Studio Museum. “Collectively, these efforts are rooted in the legacy we have established while strongly defining the Museum going forward, projecting our identity as a community-centered institution and globally minded place ‘Where Black Art Lives.’”

“Our building, dynamic brand, and website “are rooted in the legacy we have established while strongly defining the Museum going forward, projecting our identity as a community-centered institution and globally minded place ‘Where Black Art Lives.’” — Thelma Golden

Brand Guidelines: The Studio Museum’s new branding “forefronts typography and a color palette that offers a range of creative options for storytelling across print and digital media.” | Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem

The Studio Museum’s graphic identity was designed in collaboration with Pacific, the New York-based multidisciplinary creative studio founded by Elizabeth Karp-Evans and Adam Turnbull. Key highlights of the new identity include the following:

• The Studio Museum Black typeface is customized from Fragment, a font designed by Pangram Pangram Foundry. The typeface was “created to be elegant but utilitarian in nature. It is drawn in both roman and italics, with refined serifs and an accessible sans-serif.”
• The core palette of the identity—black, white, and gray—”celebrates the range and beauty of Blackness.” The primary color is 100 percent black with secondary grayscale palette referencing “the materiality of the museum’s new building.”
• The relaunched website, developed and designed by Base Design is intended to reflect “a reinvigorated institution” with expanding digital requirements. A ongoing digitization project has broadened access to the museum’s permanent collection, bringing nearly 1,000 works online and along with more than 100 biographies of artists in residence and artists represented in the museum’s holdings. (The collection includes nearly 9,000 works by more than 700 artists.)

ESTABLISHED IN 1968, the Studio Museum in Harlem celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018. Over the past five years, the museum has been shoring up its legacy and mapping out its future. Construction of a new 82,000-square-foot building is underway. For the first time in its history the museum will be housed in a space designed specifically for its needs and purposes.

Showcasing the museum’s incomparable permanent collection, the national touring exhibition “Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem” was presented at six institutions, bringing more than 100 artworks by 80 artists to new audiences.

Now the museum has defined how it will communicate its next chapter. The brand announcement said: “The new visual identity forefronts typography and a color palette that offers a range of creative options for storytelling across print and digital media. The new brand pillars are defined by the institution’s name: Studio—to be a dedicated space for artists of African descent; Museum—to steward a growing permanent collection, groundbreaking exhibitions, and community partnerships; and Harlem—to remain community-centered and committed to Harlem as a cultural destination.” CT

UPDATED (12/05/23): More details about the application of the new brand identity added

FIND MORE about the Studio Museum in Harlem’s new brand identity

FIND MORE Pacific recently redesigned the website of The Kitchen, an alternative New York City art space led by Legacy Russell, a former curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem

A teaser from Base Design highlights the design and development of the Studio Museum’s newly relaunched website. | Video by Base Design

BOOKSHELF
“Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem” was published on the occasion the touring exhibition and includes contributions by Pauline Willis and Thelma Golden, essays by Connie H. Choi and Kellie Jones, and a conversation between Choi, Golden, and Jones, along with contributions from many others who write about works in the Studio Museum’s permanent collection. Pacific has collaborated with artists and organizations on notable publications. Recent projects include “Barbara Chase-Riboud: Infinite Folds,” “William Edmondson: A Monumental Vision,” “The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century,” “Meleko Mokgosi: Democratic Intuition,” and “Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto” by Legacy Russell.