Fundació Cardells per a les Arts

Private foundations of this profile face a particular tension: they need to communicate decades of institutional weight and curatorial authority without becoming inaccessible. The identity had to carry real history without feeling dated, and feel contemporary without losing the restraint that defines a serious collection.

We developed an identity system built around three elements that work together as a whole. Minerva as the primary symbol — goddess of wisdom and the arts, rendered as a solid black silhouette with the authority of a classical seal. An FC monogram that functions as the foundation's mark of collection: the letters intertwined with a fleur-de-lis, built to live on wax seals, archive documents, and edition pieces. And CARDELLS as a wordmark — dense serif, all caps, uncompromising. A palette of deep burgundy and aged cream. A system that doesn't need to announce itself.

Cardells feels like an institution that has existed for decades. An identity that doesn't need to explain itself — one that invites those who know how to read it, and reserves its depth for those who get closer.