Hato’s rebrand repositions New Contemporaries as a more “nimble” institution

London-based art organisation New Contemporaries – a long-established non-profit supporting emergent British art – has turned to Hato for a visual brand overhaul and a strategic reformation, repositioning the previously institutional-feeling brand to somewhere more agile. “We really shifted their position from a formal institution,” Hato’s creative director and partner, Kenjiro Kirton, tells us, “to something more nimble that can have a big impact and shift the culture in the art world.”

The rebrand is front and centre of New Contemporaries’ 2025 exhibition, launched at the ICA on 14 January, celebrating the organisation’s latest cohort of artists. Hato, inspired by the scientific, philosophical and poetic notion of what’s ‘new’, considered the process of generating something from what previously existed. “This mass cycle moving from cold to hot dense states constantly creates new timelines,” Kenjiro says, “so we wanted to play around with these polar opposites from 75 years ago (when New Contemporaries was established) through to today.”

Taking into consideration the tone of voice, strategy, identity system and logo alike, the comprehensive rebrand marks not only a major creative milestone in the institution’s over 75 year history but also the long-term, ongoing collaboration between Hato and New Contemporaries. “We’ve been working with New Contemporaries for nearly a decade,” Kenjiro says, “originally with Kirsty Ogg, who we met at the Whitechapel, and now more recently with Kiera Blakey,” who joined as the head of New Contemporaries in 2024. “Each year, we produced quite a bold identity for the show,” he continues, typically creating digital tools for the featured artists to co-create with. “The first four years were publications and from then on digital platforms.”

The process of timelines, movement and creation can be seen in the stretched forms of New Contemporaries’ typographic approach, whether that’s the contrast between tightly kerned numbers and loosely exaggerated spacing of its typesetting, or its Marlow Moss-inspired logomark and typeface. The studio reference the Constructivist artist’s gridded paintings and progressive voice. “Marlow Moss was a real advocate and contemporary female artist even by today’s standards,” Kenjiro says. “She was a radical lesbian, lived in Cornwall and pretty much came up with the gridded Constructivist art paintings before Mondrian. She represents the past, whilst the colour palette lends itself to RGB tones representing digitalisation,” as well as today’s ongoing technological development.