YoungArts, formerly National YoungArts Foundation, identifies the most accomplished young artists in the visual, literary and performing arts, and provides them with creative and professional development opportunities throughout their careers. Pentagram has designed a bold and contemporary visual identity that captures the spirit of YoungArts and its mission to nurture, cultivate and support artists.
The new identity centers on a wordmark held by a set of brackets, a graphic motif that conveys what is special about the foundation—that it identifies a select group of emerging artists, brings them into a diverse and dynamic community, and stays with them as a support system throughout their artistic lives.
Pentagram collaborated closely with leadership at YoungArts on the new identity, which coincides with the 40th anniversary of the foundation established in 1981 by Lin and Ted Arison. Entrance into this prestigious organization starts with a highly competitive application process for talented artists ages 15–18, or grades 10–12, in the US. Past winners have included Viola Davis, Kerry Washington, Billy Porter, Josh Groban, Judith Hill, Allegra Goodman, Terence Blanchard and Doug Aitken, among others. YoungArts is the sole path to becoming a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts.
The update also introduces a new official name, YoungArts, shortened from National YoungArts Foundation. The logo is accompanied by a new tagline—The National Foundation for the Advancement of Artists—that evokes the former name and makes it clear the organization is about artists and the people who make art.
The wordmark is set in Degular, a strong, high-contrast typeface with letterforms that structurally echo the curved brackets. The framework can be easily extended to various programs and initiatives, making them immediately recognizable as part of YoungArts. A bright and expressive color palette adds vibrancy to the system, and the parentheses of the logo can be used to form graphic patterns and iconography.
