Graphic Design: Sagmeister & Walsh create striking identity for New York's Jewish Museum

Sagmeister & Walsh are not known for doing things the easy way, and their latest work for New York’s Jewish Museum is no exception. With a collection comprising 30,000 objects and a challenging mission to engage a broad inter-generational audience, the museum needed a new look and feel across print, physical and digital collateral that would reflect and enhance its modern role.

Sagmeister & Walsh say: “Our goal in rebranding the museum was to connect the historic and contemporary. The new identity system we created is founded on sacred geometry, an ancient geometric system from which the Star of David was formed. The entire branding system is drawn on this grid, from the word and logo mark, to dozens of patterns, icons, typography, and illustrations. This system invites surprise and flexibility across all media, while always unified in visual language.” 

In order to incorporate photography into the new identity, they even built an app that processes any photo or webcam stream through the same geometric parameters and turns it into “a Jewish Museum illustration.”

It’s intelligent, powerfully communicative and great-looking; in many ways an archetypal Sagmeister & Walsh project.