The Whitney Museum Logo: A Lesson in Simplicity

The Museum’s rebrand demonstrates why minimalism is something to be respected.. 

If you follow the Wired feed, you’ll have already seen the storm raging around the recently released logo for the Whitney Museum. The museum’s simple logo has not only divided opinion among creatives, but also the wider public. We think it’s something to be admired.

http://www.huhmagazine.co.uk/5174/the-whitney-museums-new-visual-identity

At its core, a brand’s logo is an image, through which the public can gain their first contact with the underpinning identity and values of the brand. The image must, first and foremost, reflect the true nature of the brand, and this can be achieved through either simplicity or intricacy – there is no ‘hard and fast’ rule.

In the case of the Whitney Museum, the new “responsive W” design captures the essence of the brand through simplicity in that it isn’t glamourous or brash – it’s a sophisticated and respectable image befitting a museum. The brand isn’t in any way a gimmick, so the logo shouldn’t be either. Although the simplicity may not appear to justify the price tag, in this instance an indulgent design would have been neither necessary nor appropriate.

The logo also remains recognizable despite an ever-changing image. As much could be said about the museum, which will always remain consistent throughout a variety of exhibitions. The ability of the ‘W’ – and thus the museum – to always return to a recognizable form allows users to “make of it what they will”, which is often a necessity for museum-goers across the world. This same rule has been applied across a variety of promotional media, on which the shape of the ‘W’ can shift in order to meet the demands of the content.

Finally, as a cherry atop the icing on the cake, the Whitney logo should be considered a success because it has generated a conversation among creatives, art critics and the community about the image and identity of the museum itself, rather than simply the exhibits within.

As a piece of creative design and also as a publicity tool, the Whitney Museum logo demonstrates that good things can be borne of simplicity, and we tip our hats to that…