The Whitney Museum of American Art pays tribute to America’s 20th and 21st-century art and artists. Strategically located at the terminus of the High Line in New York’s Meatpacking District, the museum contains over 21,000 works of art, including paintings, sculptures, photos, film and new media.
Entro was engaged to develop the identity signage, wayfinding, donor recognition program, and digital display system for nine floors and 220,000 square feet of public, administration, and exhibit space. The WMAA brand is extended throughout the spaces in subtle yet identifiable ways, with enough restraint to keep the museum environment simple, elegant, and timeless. Our solution was functionally effective but subdued enough so as not to compete with the art. Using the Whitney’s “Responsive W”– a flexible typographic grid based on the museum’s logo – we designed the wayfinding graphics to be elegant and timeless, with a modern edge appropriate to the museum.
The colour palette is essentially monochromatic based on black, grey, and white. The graphics incorporate ‘flexible’ directional arrows that reference the museum’s logo and also act as a container for directional information.
Application methods vary depending on the surfaces where information is applied: vinyl on concrete, screened graphics on drywall, and dimensional letters for donor names in galleries and other public spaces. Silver vinyl applied to glass was chosen for the donor wall.
AWARDS: GRAPHIS DESIGN ANNUAL GOLD AWARD, RED DOT COMMUNICATION DESIGN AWARD, ADVERTISING & DESIGN CLUB OF CANADA DIRECTIONS 2016 AWARD, SEGD GLOBAL DESIGN MERIT AWARD, APPLIED ARTS ENVIRONMENTAL/SIGNAGE AWARD, COMMUNICATION ARTS AWARD OF EXCELLENCE, TRANSFORM NORTH AMERICA GOLD AWARD, CANADIAN REGIONAL DESIGN AWARDS (REDGEES) FINALIST
