It stands to reason that The Guggenheim would have a storied brand identity. As a champion for modern and contemporary art, the almost 90-year-old organization had a modest identity, created in-office with sans serif lettering that was on hand. In 1982, Massimo Vignelli created the first formal identity was created (you can view parts of his standards manual at https://vignellicenter.tumblr.com/post/177460464997/vignelli-manualsmonday-guggenheim). Pentagram’s Abbot Miller designed the museums’ most recent identity in 2013 (the full account of that project can be viewed at https://www.guggenheim.org/articles/checklist/how-the-guggenheim-got-its-visual-identity).
With its fourth location set to open in 2025 in Abu Dhabi, the organization asked Pentagram for a rebrand that would tie together all locations. The project was centered on the statement “One brand, one constellation, one vision, and many experiences.”
The new wordmark’s foundations are built on Vignelli and Miller’s use of “generic” typography. The new Open Source face, Guggenheim Sans, has an Arabic variant. The identity also uses the letter G, which appears three times in the client’s name.
From the Pentagram website: “Based on an abstract form of the letter G, the new symbol is a singular and powerful mark that consolidates the different locations in a single unit, ‘holding’ the constellation together and reflecting the Museum’s new unified spirit. The symbol provides a simple, iconic sign-off, echoing the architectural form of the museums, and providing brand recognition across a wide range of varied touchpoints…. The symbol can also appear as an outline, and beyond the formal version, a series of free-form iterations of the mark can also appear as animations and static images allowing the museums to have a more expressive side to their visual language.”
