Manual
YBCA
YBCA
YBCA
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (otherwise known as YBCA) is an innovative contemporary art institution in the heart of San Francisco. The organization pushes the boundaries of what an art center can be. Founded in 1993 as the cultural anchor of the Yerba Buena Gardens development, YBCA serves a diverse and ever-evolving community. Unlike museums, YBCA places equal emphasis on visual arts, performing arts, film, and civic engagement, resulting in a wide and varied visitor experience.
While YBCA is a new kind of art center with work in the realms of art, civic engagement and public life, much of the San Francisco community knew them only as a venue or host for performances and events. There was a general lack of awareness around their vision and mission, and this misalignment was at the core of the creative challenge that we were asked to help solve via a new identity and communications strategy.
At the heart of the identity is a new iconic logo—drawn from YBCA’s geographic site and a conceptual representation of the notion of expanding and extending. Across all communications the logo connects with visual content via a simple and flexible graphic system.
A deceptively simple 'right angle' layout system allows for variation across visual arts and performing arts design and content, while creating structure and cohesion across a wide range of materials.
Over a period of four years we’ve continued to work closely with and support the work being produced by YBCA on special programming and events. Every fall YBCA released the YBCA 100 – an annual list of creative minds that inspire their work– and held the YBCA 100 Summit. This one-day event led by YBCA’s designated changemakers invited Bay Area citizens to name and interrogate urgent questions facing the community to explore how art and culture can create societal change.
The verbal identity of YBCA is expressed in campaign communications that defines art as an active, participatory experience, thus enabling YBCA to place themselves at the center of the conversation and effort to engage culturally, artistically, and socially with the city of San Francisco.
The resulting creative work positions YBCA as a leading art institution—one that is vibrant, active, vital, and energetic—and communicates the organization’s belief that culture is a catalyst for social change.