Modernizing a legacy design institution
Since its founding in 1894, New York-based Van Alen Institute has been dedicated to investigating the role of architecture and the design of civic life.
Bruce Mau Design contemporized the organization’s visual identity and introduced flexibility to bolsters the institute’s brand architecture, branded partnerships and programs. This system allows for information to sit between ‘Van Alen’ and ‘Institute’ making the logo an integral and supporting part of the identity. While allowing for text-based or image-driven applications to lead.
The studio has since established a longstanding partnership with the institute, developing campaign identities and communications for events and programs.
Notably we developed the campaign identity for "Elsewhere”, a series of public programs, lectures, workshops and competitions exploring escape in the urban environment. The identity for this multi-year initiative visualizes the non-linear and complex flows of people coming and going, in search of elsewhere.
BMD also designed the book Fellowships at Van Alen, which tells the story of the institute’s founding and evolution through the voices of its fellows. The book is filled with drawings, photographs, letters, and records from their archives, bringing to life the history and transformation of the organization and architecture as a discipline.
