Nieuwe Instituut presents new visual identity
Nieuwe Instituut, the museum for architecture, design and digital culture in Rotterdam, has a new visual identity, with new typography, logo and colours. A stylistic change to the spelling of the organisation’s name has also been made: Nieuwe Instituut, without ‘Het’.
With this new visual identity, the Nieuwe Instituut wants to show more emphatically that it is a multi-voiced, diverse institute with the mission to inspire a broad audience with architecture, design and digital culture. With it, the organisation aims for higher recognisability and brand awareness, greater accessibility of its offerings and further growth in audience reach.
The new visual identity was designed by an occasional team consisting of designers Cengiz Mengüç, Jacob Hoving, Vera van de Seyp and Maud Vervenne. They were guided by Maureen Mooren, head of design at the Nieuwe Instituut. Apart from their talent, knowledge and skills, the designers were also selected on the basis of their demonstrable interest in collaboration.
That collaboration between the designers thus formed the basis for the new design, because ‘polyphony’ is a core value of the Nieuwe Instituut: the institute always shows multiple sides of a story. This diversity had to be reflected in the new visual identity, first of all by literally letting several designers ‘speak out’.
The principle of polyphony was translated into the choice of using different typography and colours interchangeably. The designers selected six different revivals – new versions of fonts created before the digital age – two of which are used side by side each time. Also, the new visual style has no fixed colours: on top of the basic warm grey colour, any two different colours can be used. This creates a visual style that radiates duality and thus always carries the core value of ‘polyphony’.
Introduction and more information
The visual identity will be phased in from January 2023. First up will be the new name, a new website and revamped social media.
Photo: Taco de Neef