Directors Julia Peyton-Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist’s cutting-edge curatorial programme has given the Serpentine Gallery a global reputation, reaching far beyond its Hyde Park location. The gallery needed an identity that would address both its local and worldwide audiences and support the development of more streamlined, cost-effective communications material.
The new Serpentine typeface was a modified version of Monotype Grotesque 215 and 216. Selected for its Englishness – it would not have felt out of place in Hyde Park a century ago – the fonts were redrawn to optimise performance across all gallery communication materials.
In early 2009, 2D barcodes were just coming into use. Recognising that this technology could fast-track browsers to the gallery’s content-rich website, GTF proposed adding a modified code to the identity: a global symbol that would also convey the gallery’s unique location within the greenery of the park. As yet, this proposal has not been realised.
