Identity Crisis
Fred & Farid New York, Getty logo, 2026 It's a busy time for museum branding mavens. The Getty has unveiled a new logo by Fred & Farid , replacing the Saul Bass design adopted in 1993. Last year the Huntington introduced a new "H" monogram with bespoke typography and palette. The Philadelphia Museum of Art also got a new griffin logo and name ("Philadelphia Art Museum"), only to roll back the latter after critics began calling it PhArt. That's a reminder that museums can be downstream of culture. The acronym "LACMA" was apparently invented by the public, not a branding expert. The Philadelphia logo actually looks like something. That's rare. Museum directors tend to read more into a brand than regular civilians might. ("The Huntington's new brand visually unifies its Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, showcasing the depth of each collection and the powerful connections and cross-fertilization among them." Huh? It...
