Responses by Harry Pearce, design partner, Pentagram.
Background: The essential purpose was to create a unifying visual identity drawing together the Guggenheim constellation of museums. The identity allows each location to have a degree of individual expression relevant to its local culture while adhering to a shared global aesthetic.
The audience is the world’s cultural and art community as well as all internal employees of the Guggenheim.
Design thinking: Each museum was named by its location—Guggenheim Bilbão or Abu Dhabi, for example. This was a big change for New York, as it has always been known as just “Guggenheim.” Now it’s Guggenheim New York to make the nomenclature convention equal to all.
The redesign of the logotype equally sought to lessen the visual typographic references to the lettering on the original New York building by Frank Lloyd Wright, creating—in the spirit of equality—a logotype belonging to all. The G symbol was a very important part of the identity; the new G holds all the names together internally, symbolizing the united constellation in the same way museums hold collections of art together within their walls.
Challenges: Singularly, the greatest difficulty came with uniting four museums that are so diverse in scale, location and local cultural diversity.
Favorite details: We are most proud of the simplicity and understatement inherent in the work. The visual language allows the art to be center stage while quietly adding authority behind it. However simple the scheme appears, the grids and typography are detailed and very precise.
New lessons: Being a designer is just as much about listening as it is about making. I’m not sure this was something new to me, but I realized how vital it was to give time to each of the museums equally, to travel to all the venues and spend time talking to understand in absolute detail their very different requirements. There were sensitivities that otherwise would have never been heard or understood.
Time constraints: This was a project that was unusually generous in time. Unlike so many other project schedules, the Guggenheim work was allowed proper time and diligence in its gestation—something that I am most grateful for.
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