2H Gallery (Identity System)

Year: 2024
Creative Director: Eric Heiman
Partner: Meg James

TBD*, a student-run design studio, partnered with Enso Village, a senior living community in Healdsburg, CA, to design the identity system for 2H Gallery, an exhibition and gallery space where resident artists would showcase their work to their neighbors and the public of Sonoma County.

Prompts about art, directions to the gallery, and personal art statements are utilized throughout the identity on print, digital, and experiential applications that overall engage the community of Enso Village to talk with others, to knock on each other’s doors, and to support art.

Jump to final design

Enso Village is a non-profit senior living center in Sonoma County built on the principles of zen, health & wellness, and sustainability. Their community consists of residents in independent living, assisted living, memory support, etc. They came to TBD* to develop an identity for a gallery space, as well as its name, signage and an interactive installation. The project brief stated:

“[Enso Village wants] their exhibition to be a destination for art in the community.”

My partner and I first met our client through a Zoom meeting, where we were able to learn more about them and the project. We also saw the gallery space and asked further questions from our preliminary research.

Zoom meeting at the TBD* studio!

From then on, we had weekly virtual meetings with the client and a resident of Enso Village, who was also the first artist that was going to be exhibited at this gallery, where we presented our current research and design progress to discuss and gather feedback.

We listened a lot during those meetings, holding onto important ideas our client said that inspired us in the early strategy phase. We heard:

The audience of this project was Enso Village residents, who are 60+ senior citizens. As there was a large age difference between my partner and I and this audience, we were not familiar with how to approach them. We asked the client to point us to resources so we can educate ourselves and “avoid stereotypes”.

So, we learned from ageism activists like Ashton Applewhite to confront and dispel our own biases about the community we were designing for.

Additionally, we were inspired by the words our client said of the architecture and industrial + natural elements found in Enso Village. We curated a moodboard of visual inspiration from those words and presented this to the client.

We also synthesized the images of the moodboard in three categories: textural, loose, and geometric. This allowed us to create a foundation of the look and feel of the identity, and gave us a solid direction when we went into the design process.

My partner and I drove to Healdsburg from San Francisco.

My partner taking a close up detail shot of the Enso logo.

We were able to meet the client and Enso resident in person to get a tour of Enso Village. We took lots of photos and notes, absorbing everything we heard and saw. We first ate together in the dining hall, and after some great pizza, we explored:

Top left and bottom right: Tierra Cocina (dining hall). Bottom left: Meditation Hall. Top right: Communal garden

From left: Enso resident Betty Nelsen and client partner Erin Partridge.

Left: art pieces by a resident, hung outside their room. Right: mural inside Tierra Cocina

From the handcrafted wooden doors in the dining hall to the linear panels of the Meditation hall, my partner and I saw lots of natural and geometric elements throughout that gave us great inspiration.

Art was everywhere. It adorned the walls of every floor, greatly connected to the daily lives of the residents.

But, the vibrancy of Enso Village came from the community of residents and staff. We felt how important it was to the people here from the bright smile on a staff member’s face learning it was a resident’s birthday, and even the simple “hello” we got as we passed by residents during our tour.

Lastly, we went to the H-wing, 2nd floor to see the gallery space. We also made sure to take note of how people would travel there.

...and we took lots of measurements (just in case).

The gallery lives within the hallway of the residents in assisted living. Betty, the Enso resident with us, told my partner and I that most of those in independent living shy away from this area. So, these residents are almost isolated from the community.

Inclusion of the assisted living residents became an important goal for the identity.

Overall, the goals for the project became clear. The gallery identity must:

1. Unite and engage the community
2. Support Enso artists
3. Frame and invite

The design of the identity must not overshadow the expression of the artists. The language and application of the identity must create conversation and bring people together.

The gallery did not have a name in the beginning, so we had to create it ourselves. We had many different ideas, ranging from zen-like words to random combinations, but during a brainstorm we had in one of our weekly meetings with the client, we came up with two names.

1. With
2. 2H

As our project evolved, these two names became the two directions of the identity. With became a direction that focused on engaging with language, as the name suggested. 2H referred to the location of the gallery, 2nd floor H-wing, so this name created a focus on wayfinding.

The design process was heavily inspired by what we saw on our trip: the lines found in Enso Village and the vineyards of Sonoma County. We used lines throughout our process because it was a feature found in both communities: communities we want to unite in this gallery.

My partner and I began to sketch logos for both directions. For With, we explored using the line elements and how it can connect to the names of the artists that would be exhibited. For 2H, we tried to create a mark that had visual ideas of connection or op art (op art makes you look closer, like you do at galleries).

With direction sketches

2H direction sketches

We continued the process with feedback and many iterations. We also explored outside the computer screen to add an organic texture to the 2H logo, with my partner creating a rubber stamp.

My partner and I presented our “Round One” design to the client, hoping they would chose one direction that we could focus on.

With direction

2H direction

But, they chose both directions...

Per the client, 2H felt like an identity and With felt like a campaign. They enjoyed how 2H felt organic and the name was great for wayfinding purposes, but preferred how With used color and engaged with language.

We continued on, trying to combine both directions:

We asked ourselves two important questions throughout the process:

First, how many elements do we need? In the beginning, we tried to juxtapose graphic lines with the artwork, thinking that would create complexity in the design. But, we understood it was doing exactly the opposite of what we wanted from the beginning; the lines were the first thing one would see, overshadowing the art. So, we began to simplify the design, which added a lot of sophistication.

Less is more. Embrace the negative space.

Next, how can we incorporate language? How can we make the identity engage people? The opportunity to do that was found in the interactive installation. In the installation, there would a prompt for each exhibit where people would write their answer and hang it up on the wall at the back of the gallery. We explored how these prompts would look and landed at a textured underline under the word of the prompt that would be the most emphasized when spoken. We also extended the applications of the identity, thinking of the possibilites of how people would experience the identity.

Be experiential.

Final identity of 2H Gallery

Brand guidelines

Art prompts

Buttons that are worn at shows, with some being personal art statements that would overall create a sense of community.

Table tents that would be placed in the dining hall.

Door hangers that would be hung on every room in the assisted living hallway to make those residents an integral part of the gallery.

Social media can be used to extend the conversation online, with opportunities for people to share their thoughts in the comments or tag a person they want to invite to 2H Gallery.

These prompt cards also work as “manipulatives”, which are devices used for those with memory issues to help ground them.

Interactive installation, with filled-in prompt cards hung by pins.

Hana Noory

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