Columbia University
Institute for Ideas & Imagination

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Graphic identity system
Stationery
Announcement advertisements
Printed matter for inaugural events
Signage 

Signage designed in collaboration with Gumus Design Group

The Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination, based in Paris at Reid Hall, hosts a community of fourteen scholars, writers, and artists whose work has the potential to transform the way we think about the world. The Institute aims to foster collaboration across the creative arts and scholarly disciplines (including the humanities, social sciences, and theoretical sciences) through residential and short-term fellowships, workshops, conferences, exhibitions, and artistic events. Its primary goal is to enrich academic modes of presenting ideas by drawing together the scholarly and the artistic imagination.

The graphic presentation of the Institute reflects the prestige and seriousness of this endeavor, while also conveying a sense of imagination, creativity, and collaboration that befits the Institute’s mission.

The wordmark features a beautiful ampersand, which highlights the Institute’s goal of bringing people together: Americans & non-Americans, writers & scholars & creative artists. The ampersand was originally a ligature—a joining together—of the letters e and t, Latin (and French) for ‘and.’ The ampersand is also perhaps the most widely interpreted letterform in the roman alphabet, which speaks to the imaginativeness that the Institute hopes to inspire.