 |
| 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's an H.) The Getty's new logo is also conceived as a puzzle picture. The four quadrilaterals represent travertine blocks or mosaic tiles—and the Getty Museum, Foundation, Conservation Institute, and Research Institute.
The best logos can be appreciated as great works of design. Saul Bass' work falls into this category. Yet I've never felt that art museum logos as a group have any more visual punch than those for corporate clients. Why?
 |
| Base Design, Huntington logo, 2025 |
 |
| Gretel, Philadelphia Art Museum logo, 2025 (since modified) |
 |
| 2×4 Design, in collaboration with John Baldessari, LACMA logo, 2007 |
Comments