Introducing Our New Identity

Our project team consisted of leadership and staff across various departments. The team participated in a series of co-creation workshops, generating ideas and exchange around our role in philanthropy and within the American art ecosystem. We considered who we are and who we are not, and how we want our partners, grantees, and communities to understand and engage with our work. We also circulated staff surveys, conducted stakeholder interviews with our grantees and field leaders, and hosted workshops and share-outs with the board, seeking feedback early and often.

We thought rigorously and expansively about our audience—what different groups are trying to achieve, what they are up against, and how we can best support them. We also scrutinized our language and messaging, seeking opportunities to more clearly engage with our local and global communities. We embraced this redesign as a chance to solidify the Terra Foundation’s position as a facilitator and a catalyst for intercultural connection.

This process led to the development of a strong yet flexible visual identity that communicates who we are today and supports our continued evolution. Our identity is intended to reflect the diverse identities, experiences, and ideas of our global community, and to evoke and embody our mission to support expansive narratives of American art.

The visual identity is light, spacious, and balanced, never flashy or fussy. We wanted things to feel fresh and energetic, and to offer a smart, invigorating lens on American art in its varied representations and expressions.

The identity is inviting and regenerative—it gives us the tools to explore and imagine curious and compelling possibilities. Subtly bold and experimental, it is confident in its use of color and typography.

Our custom wordmark sets the tone with a strong, clean, sans serif font, our name set in all lowercase—a departure from more traditional institutional wordmarks. It snaps into a structured grid that ensures harmony and balance across the whole system.

The two r’s invite attention and intrigue; they communicate a sense of playful disruption, transformation, and momentum. They create an elegant, responsive framing device that elevates our visual storytelling and amplifies the brilliance of our partners in the field, whose work we are proud to support.

Our brand palette came together through a deeply collaborative and iterative process. Drawing inspiration from the foundation’s art collection, we pulled hues from a variety of works to develop potential colorways, experimenting with combinations, shades, and saturation levels to achieve an expressive palette that strikes a balance of warmth and approachability. The result is fresh and invigorating. We can mix and match as needed to achieve different tones—bold and passionate, worldly and polished.

Our typography is crisp, modern, and confident. It pairs Fragment, a calligraphic serif designed by the US-based, globally recognized foundry Pangram Pangram, with Ginka, a sans serif featuring unique ink traps from emerging foundry Lift Type, based in Montpellier, France. Our type story creates a visual connection between the US and France, reflecting our locations in Chicago and Paris.

A special thank you to all who contributed to this project. Our website update seeks to make it easier to find grant deadlines and program guidelines, as well as experience our art collection and its programs. We hope that more arts and culture organizations around the world understand that we are here to support their critical work, encompassing the writing of American art histories and the imagining of shared futures. We hope, as you navigate the site, you find value in learning about and taking inspiration from grantee projects and collection partnerships.