Doris Duke Artist Awards 2025

Timed to May Day, the program centers on the theme ‘Creative Labor, Creative Conditions,’ promoting the idea that the labor of artists is taken for granted, but they deserve the same protections and support as other workers.

The campaign also previews the new Doris Duke Foundation identity designed by Pentagram, which features a bold dimensional ‘D’ with a dynamic counter that swings through the space of the letter.

The Doris Duke Foundation believes that the most effective illustration of the power of the performing arts to positively impact our society is found in the vital work of artists themselves. Since 2012, the Doris Duke Artist Awards have granted over $40 million to leading contemporary dance, jazz, and theater artists. As the largest prize of its kind in the United States, the awards uniquely recognize artists as both individuals and creative workers. The 2025 recipients are Raja Feather Kelly and Trajal Harrell (dance), Kassa Overall and Brandee Younger (jazz), and Aya Ogawa and Kaneza Schaal (theater).

Building on the identity that launched with last year’s awards, Pentagram has created a colorful campaign that highlights the 2025 honorees. Timed to May Day, the program centers on the theme “Creative Labor, Creative Conditions,” promoting the idea that those who make art—artists—are often overlooked, and their labor is taken for granted, but they deserve the same protections and support as other workers. Powerful typography is combined with striking portraits of the artists by the photographer Erik Carter. The campaign includes digital kiosks and a massive dynamic digital display in Times Square.

The campaign also previews the new Doris Duke Foundation identity designed by Pentagram, which features a bold dimensional “D” with a dynamic counter that swings through the space of the letter.

Client

Doris Duke Foundation

Sector

Arts & Culture

Discipline

Campaigns

Office

New York

Partner

Abbott Miller

Project team

Yoon-Young Chai
Tengmo Han
Michelle Brown
Zachary Newton

Collaborators

Erik Carter, photographer
Luise Stauss, photography direction
Genevieve Fussell, photography direction

Retrospective: Shakespeare in the Park

In 1954, impresario Joe Papp began a summer tradition of staging free outdoor performances of Shakespeare, inaugurating the Public Theater’s beloved Shakespeare in the Park festival. Pentagram partner Paula Scher, whose relationship with the Public spans four decades, has designed a new identity for the series for thirty consecutive summers. Each campaign is customized to the season’s theme, creating a highly visible graphic vocabulary for outdoor advertising, social media, and on-site signage.

(28)

2025