Coinciding with Witherford Watson Mann’s sensitive transformation of one of the world’s most prestigious institutions for art history, curating and conservation, Kellenberger–White rebranded the Courtauld, uniting its gallery and university under a single vision: look deeper, see further.

Our redesign began with research, including study of the Courtauld’s archives, tours across departments and galleries, and close attention to Somerset House and its surrounding architecture, imagining the visual world of 1930s London when the Institute was founded.

The identity draws on these moments in typographic history, reaching back to Roman inscriptional capitals carved into the city’s buildings. We studied Max Caflisch’s mid-century open-display lettering – including the inscriptional sensibility of Columna, itself shaped by these forms – as a point of reference in developing a new logotype and a flexible family of marks. A strong palette, informed by conservation thinking around Old Master and Post-Impressionist paintings, supports a clarified brand architecture with distinct sub-brands and rigorous guidelines for print and digital applications.