Design for star of hope foundation

When tasked with the project to create a logo to represent the legacy of Robert Indiana—an artist I have admired my whole life—I was elated. My family has for generations over a century loved, enjoyed, and made art on Vinalhaven. This project is near and dear to my heart. As a teenager I had the unique opportunity to tour the Star of Hope with Indiana. I have been a fan ever since.

In this quest, and to do it the justice it deserved, I did a deep dive into Indiana’s life and breadth of work. My research uncovered much about the artist, his inspirations, life events, travels, influences, where and how he made his art, and a glimpse at the deep meanings his works embody.

I identified themes and symbology that were present in his process and transitions. I created unique symbols and wordmarks that could potentially represent this next chapter. The designs ranged from minimalist to abstract. I did a lot of sketching and alongside the Star of Hope board members, held a lot of critiques. In each stage of the process we weighed all our thoughts and collectively made decisions that led to each evolution of the design.

In the end the mark that emerged was simple—a stylized illustration of an architectural detail of Indiana’s home on Main Street in Vinalhaven. He named his home The Star of Hope. It is the basis of his foundation. From considering every angle and deliberately narrowing down our thoughts, we are affirmed that the outcome is on point.

We paired the symbol with a typeset wordmark inspired by the brass stencils Indiana used often in his work. We feel it speaks his language. The color palette was derived from his hand-painted basketball court floor at the Mecca arena in Milwaukee. The result is a fresh and unique logo with a strong sense of place and ties to the past, poised to represent a future of infinite creativity—from Vinalhaven and beyond.