CHICAGO, IL.- A 30-year fixture of the Chicago arts community, Intuit was a center that stood apart as a leader in the genre of outsider and self-taught art. But as its building and organization underwent a complete renovation, evolving into a full-fledged museum, it partnered with design studio Span for a new identity that invites a broader audience to share in the work and stories of these singular artists.

Originally named Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, the organization focuses on Art Brut (“raw art”) or “Outsider Art” – terms that include art by individuals without traditional training who may be on the margins of society and compelled by an internal impulse to create. As the institution entered its new era, Span hoped to find a balance between honoring its past and shifting sentiments around the genre.



“Labels like ‘Outsider Art’ and ‘Art Brut’ remain a complicated issue in the art world,” explains Span’s Partner and Design Director, Bud Rodecker. “Younger audiences find the term alienating and some artists who are considered to be ‘outsiders’ take issue with the label. Yet, no single term encapsulates the diversity of the genre. Terms like ‘self-taught’ and ‘intuitive’ fall short, while ‘Art Brut’ is foreign and little-understood.”

Span’s solution was to rename the institution — confidently relaunching it as Intuit Art Museum — and (alongside brand strategist/writer Donna Speigel) rethinking its overall design system to elevate the center to the status of a museum while preserving some of the familiar personality of the institution. This meant adopting the inherently playful, imperfect and hand-made quality of the art rather than the aloof voice and tone prevalent within so many museums.



Next, Span built the brand around the idea of "Serendipitous Connections" – a unifying theme that makes connections between visitors and the museum, signage and the building’s architecture, the website and the graphic elements, and, even, between the letterforms of the wordmark. "Learning about Intuit and its artwork is itself a kind of serendipitous connection. So we saw each part of the brand as an enabler of those connections, helping visitors bond with Intuit in a more personal and meaningful way,” continues Rodecker.

For the logo, Span designed a wordmark that was mature and simple with a subtle wit. Created by customizing the Degular font, the type was modified to create ligature “connections” between the U and I, the U and M, along with the R and T. These embellishments were then duplicated throughout the rest of the wordmark. Degular is also used elsewhere in the brand, sometimes as background visuals with dramatic flourishes of typographic scale that add a dynamic energy to the museum’s voice.



To complement this, Span developed a suite of brand characters to be used throughout the identity – icons based (with permission) on the work of celebrated outsider artists like Minnie Evans, Lee Godie, Mr Imagination, David Butler and Nellie Mae Rowe. Each distinctive character – dog, butterfly, angel, hands and more – is abstracted from a work of art in Intuit’s permanent collection.

Brand messaging was similarly crafted to more openly welcome potential and current members, educators, donors and sponsors. This is best embodied by Intuit Art Museum’s “iam” acronym which then becomes the basis for the brand’s “I am…”-themed messaging. In this way, “I am…” acts as a unifier that merges the museum’s persona with the audience’s own identity and experiences. The phrase deftly personalizes the brand story, creating a bond between the institution and visitors. Meanwhile, Intuit's brand voice is personal and pointed, but never aloof, embracing strong messages like “We hope we're not what you were expecting" and "Come to Intuit with your eyes and mind open".



"The partnership with Span has been essential to developing Intuit's new presence, both online and in person," said Debra Kerr, Intuit president and CEO. "This comprehensive identity system is playing a key role in Intuit Art Museum's transformational process to be a welcoming space."

Span is a studio crossing the boundaries of communication design in all mediums. Our work is focused on challenging expectations with wit, logic, and a playful spirit. Blending typographic discipline with fearless expression, we elevate the role of the visual message in both culture and community. Span takes the long view — in every gesture and every project. https://span.studio