The second revival, The Diana Seal, is an illustrative rendition of the museum’s 50th anniversary mark, which depicts Paul Manship’s Diana statue – commissioned by one of the museum’s co-founders, Ralph Norton, in 1941 and which lies in the museum’s garden. The Koto team have redrawn the seal for clarity and so it can be downsized for more varied application, on small screens, for example. However, its use remains intentional – used throughout the rebrand in celebratory moments, for historical reference or subtle brand details. The wordmark and seal are then paired with Sharp Type’s Centra No. 2, the clean geometry and circular forms of which reference the Foster + Partners 2019 architectural expansion.
The colour palette exists in two pools: the core palette draws from the surrounding Florida landscape – yellows, sky blues, and oranges – with Klein blue, olive green, and warm black to add contrast. While the secondary extended palette is more flexible, allowing colours to be brought in from the Norton collection and temporary exhibitions – a move that “enabl[es] the identity to shift dynamically over time and let the art shape the visual experience”, the studio states.
All of these disparate elements come together to create an identity that conjures the feeling of being within the Norton Museum, rather than just referencing its characteristics. As well as digging into its archive, the Koto team spent hours immersing themselves within it, meeting staff and attending its events. “There’s a version of this project where you lean into the gravitas, the architecture, the collection and the history,” says Katie Hughes, strategy director at Koto. “The Norton has all of that in spades. But when you spend time there, something else becomes impossible to ignore: the tour guides talking about art as personal experience rather than art history, the community showing up for Art After Dark, for lunch, for the garden. The brand idea had to hold both – the institution and the life happening around it. ‘Where art meets life’ sounds simple because the truth it’s based on is undeniable.”