The Harn: Expanding – Capital Campaign

Expanding: Connections, Minds, Experiences, AND Foundations

What we did
  • Campaign Brand System
  • Campaign Messaging
  • Campaign Naming
  • Campaign Visual Identity

The Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida is a classroom, a laboratory, and an educational incubator that fosters creative connections and propels personal discovery. The Harn team approached us needing a Capital Campaign brand to support building not only a new wing but to ensure the museum took to new heights in the future. We partnered with them to create a name, verbal, and visual identity system that will capture the attention of any potential donor and expand on what it means to be an art museum.

Our challenge was to create a brand that shows donors, connectors, advocates, and the state legislature that this will be more than a building. The funding for the new wing will create programs, develop new opportunities for UF students working shoulder to shoulder with art world professionals, and provide tools, experience, and skills to pursue future careers. Plus, it’s a wonderful place to look at art.

How do we create connections between people and art they will carry with them for life? We began with a name. The word ‘Expanding’ was the quintessential idea that not only was the museum itself expanding physically, but also expanding connections, minds, experiences, and foundations.

We worked closely with the Harn team to create a verbal identity that could bring learning to life for everyone through art. For the visual identity, the logomark became a visual representation of expansion, to become more extensive—to grow. A mark that reflects the continuous change the museum constantly undergoes. It emphasizes the word “AND” drawing back to the four strategic goal pillars that are foundational to the Harn Museum of Art. Representing those four pillars are the strategic goal patterns, each representing Expanding Connections, Minds, Experiences, and Foundations. These patterns can be used throughout the campaign brand or focused on when speaking about a specific goal, creating a versatile system of elements.

It was essential to keep the color palette recognizable to the University of Florida brand colors while still having a palette uniquely the Harn. For typography, we felt pairing a modern sans-serif with an elegant serif would add a heightened sense of sophistication for the Harn’s donors. 

Altogether, this brand captures the vibrance, culture, connections, and discovery you can find within the Harn Museum of Art.