The Storefront for Art and Architecture hosted its 2019 Spring Benefit as a block party at La Marqueta, the historic open-air market in East Harlem. The evening’s honorees included the artist collective Brigada Puerta de Tierra, architect Diana Agrest and artist Jorge Pardo. Pentagram designed the branding for the event, which features a custom typeface and a vibrant yellow inspired by the location. 

The branding previews “Building Cycles,” a new curatorial framework for the 2019-2020 season of programming at Storefront. Over the coming months, exhibitions, competitions and publications will thematically move through five cycles tied to different stages of the building process, eventually circling back to the start to begin again and highlight the regenerative aspects of architecture. Pentagram has designed a brand identity system for the platform that can flexibly expand and adapt along with the programming.

The identity system centers on a custom typeface with letterforms that will evolve over the year from fluid, organic curves to a more rigid, rectilinear structure, and back again. Using shape and form, the typography subtly references the stages of defining and constructing space and architectural renewal. The lines of the letter thicken and merge to form something solid, while the shapes move from circular twists to angular forms and eventually octagons, which transform back into circles. The sinuous line is used as a graphic element in applications like the Building Cycles website, where it transforms as it moves through the various stages of the framework.