The Noguchi Museum
Abbott Miller’s brilliant identity design for the Noguchi Museum is a great example of choosing the perfect typeface for a project. The identity, a simple, gentley concave square-ish shape perfectly translates the work of the artist and his use of organically influenced geometry. FF Balance, a wonderful typeface by Evert Bloemsma, was chosen as the typeface for the entire program for its likeness in character to the identity solution. It is almost as if it was designed as a custom typeface for this project.
FF Balance is one of the most criminally underrated masterpieces of type design. It is an impeccably designed reversed stress typeface, taking after Roger Excoffon’s Antique Olive model, that eludes the usual “western” look attributed to reverse stress types.
Kris Sowersby wrote a fantastic essay about the typeface and the details within it.
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“…for the graphic identity for the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, NY, the typographic choice referenced the sculptor’s work itself. ‘The font, Balance by Evert Bloemsma,’ Miller explained, ‘echoes the organically inflected geometrics of the carved and cast silhouettes of Noguchi’s work. The gently concave shapes of the letterforms are reflected in the design of the logo itself.’” — Print
My parents were the owners of the original cloud form sofa from the mid ’60s until auctioned off in Boston in 1996 (?) I would love to come and see it in person – is this where it is?