This year marks the opening of The Wang Contemporary, a historic landmark in the heart of New York’s Chinatown, now under Chinese-American ownership for the first time in over a century. Housed in a former bank at the base of the Manhattan Bridge, the carved-stone, towering pilasters and bronze dome stand tall at the corner of Canal and Bowery. The building’s architecture echoes gravitas and promise for past and future generations. Inside, the words wisdom, safety, thrift, and success are hand-painted on the ceiling, framing the dome above.

These details set the tone and intention for The Wang Contemporary, a long-held dream of founder Alexander Wang and his mother, Ying Wang. Their aim was to establish a cultural vanguard to support and present Asian and Asian-American creativity across generations and disciplines in a neighborhood long-defined by resilience and reinvention. Through exhibitions, performances and public programs, The Wang Contemporary serves as a platform for creatives to experiment, challenge convention and engage with culture as a living, evolving force rooted in history while oriented towards the future.

To usher in this future state, Natasha Jen and team created a brand identity that reflects the mission of the organization and the historical significance of the site itself. Another consideration was the visual equity of Alexander Wang’s independent label. Using his proprietary font as the base, the team created a custom typeface called Wang Grotesque, combining the hand-painted lettering with the contours of the dome’s support structure. These beams allowed the team to experiment with exaggeration as the weight of the typeface increased; the heavier the weight, the larger the flare (and vice versa).

The result was a typographic treatment that etched this vision into existence. As the identity expanded, tonal and compositional treatments were derived from the building itself. Pulling color swatches from the aged stonework of the exterior and establishing layouts with gravity and magnetism, the resulting system is equal parts elegant and structured. This allows the brand identity system to function as a platform in its own right. When featuring artists and creatives in the diaspora, typographic components shift to the edge. When the organization speaks on behalf of itself, those same components shift to the center.

The identity was designed to be seamlessly integrated across all public-facing touchpoints, from the building’s exterior to the organization’s website and broader communications. By sharpening the foundation of the brand, the work stands on its own in any context: a bold serif that follows the contours of the architecture, a color palette that unearths materiality, and compositions that convey scale and space. It embodies the history of the space and the vision of its future, giving prominence to the individuals and ideas it represents.