Branding Design for Art Nonprofit

Superfan? Or just super-nosey? Here's our deep dive into Fresh Artists' brand refresh. For those of you who would prefer not to nerd out over grids... read the full case study here.

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One of the central challenges of creating the Fresh Artists brand identity was figuring out how to create an “ownable” identity without overshadowing or visually competing with the art.

During our initial exploration, we recognized the impact of the "Aha!" moment when viewers realized the art was created by children. We aimed to create a brand that harnessed this reaction to emphasize the sophistication, vision, and potential of young artists. Rather than incorporate a childlike aesthetic that could be interpreted as minimizing their talent, we decided to create a highly sophisticated identity inspired by modern art museums to give the kids’ art the elevated context it deserves.

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Branding Design Inspiration

Our research into how designers have tackled creating visual identities that feature other artists’ work without being overbearing led us to the inspiring world of Modern Museum branding for institutions like the MoMA.

There were a few common graphic elements that were used throughout these inspirational brands: Strong grids, large fields of bold color, and utilitarian type systems.

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Nonprofit Logo Design

The logo is composed of 3 building blocks that increase in size, reflecting the growth and progress that Fresh Artists inspires for students and their classrooms.

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We’ve incorporated the use of negative space to reference steps, which adds a subtle yet impactful element that reinforces the ‘circle of philanthropy’ sentiment. The logo also features a clear reference to the letter F for Fresh Artists, making it an unmistakable representation of the organization. This strong mark also references the grid that we used throughout the brand.

Grid Design

Most, if not all, of the inspiration we referred to implemented strong grids.

These defined compositions establish a visual “backbone” for the highly variable featured artwork. The grid and therefore the composition becomes a graphic element in and of itself. 

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Brand Color

With a simple black and white color palette as the foundation, the artwork takes center stage. By selecting complementary hues from the artwork, we created an ever-evolving palette that reflected the personality of each featured piece.

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Aside from creating the contemporary tone we were after, the grid, variable color palette, and student artwork came together to create a brand that is super user friendly for the Fresh Artists team. Not only that, but it’s highly adaptable across various applications and visually strong enough to position FA as an authority in the nonprofit space.

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Nonprofit Brand Voice

The Fresh Artists brand celebrates the fundamental value of every child and their right to creative expression.

The children's' artwork in and of itself is testament to their talent, but we wanted to push the concept of the importance of supporting young kids' creative futures even further through the copywriting. We made the connection between famous change makers and emphasized young artists' potential with phrases like "The next Rembrandt just got out of Recess."