Continuing its ongoing collaboration with Storefront, Pentagram designed a visual identity and custom typeface for the event that nodded to the legacy of the historic setting.
The condensed proportions of the typeface stand in deliberate contrast to the extended lettering of Storefront’s institutional identity.
Each year, the Storefront for Art and Architecture hosts its annual gala at an iconic architectural landmark in New York City. For 2025, the celebration took place at the Grand Central Oyster Bar and Restaurant, with honorees including architect, writer, and educator Keller Easterling; architect Toshiko Mori; and multidisciplinary artist Paul Pfeiffer.
Continuing its ongoing collaboration with Storefront, Pentagram designed a visual identity and custom typeface for the event that nodded to the legacy of the historic setting. Opened in 1913, the Grand Central Oyster Bar is renowned for its vaulted, tiled ceilings and cavernous interior, nestled beneath the busy concourse of Grand Central Terminal.
Pentagram’s graphics reinterpret the civic design language of the early 20th century, drawing particular inspiration from New York’s role in the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The identity channels the graphic force of WPA posters––their compressed layouts, blocky rhythms, and typographic density. The designers researched vintage WPA posters—characterized by bold, utilitarian lettering influenced by Russian Constructivism—and developed a custom geometric condensed sans serif typeface with strong, simple forms and angled corners. The condensed proportions of the typeface stand in deliberate contrast to the extended lettering of Storefront’s institutional identity.
The type appears in a bright, celebratory pink and is paired with a red-and-white checkerboard motif taken from the tablecloths found in the restaurant. Guests took home matchbooks wrapped in the checkerboard pattern as a playful keepsake of the evening.
Pentagram has worked with Storefront since 2012, previously designing projects such as the identity for its 2023 gala, its 40th anniversary benefit and exhibition, its spring 2019 benefit and its spring 2017 benefit.
Sector
- Arts & Culture
Discipline
- Brand Identity
- Typefaces
