The Art Students League

About the Partnership

The project started as an Instagram DM from a past co-worker, JJ, who is the Arts Students League marketing manager. We worked together at a design agency in 2017, where I was a junior creative fresh to NYC. During that time, I was doing a lot of hand-lettering. I had a phase where I was obsessed with typography and would draw on every scrap of paper I had.

This led to a deep understanding of letter forms. Drawing with pencil and paper helped train my eye to know how letters should be constructed, while at the same time, learning how to bend the rules. I was working non-stop through evenings and on the weekends—great for the portfolio but awful for life balance. My managers noticed my knack with custom lettering, along with JJ, and brought me on projects that required a hand-made touch.

Fast-forward to 7 years later, when the ASL wanted to create their visual identity to celebrate the 150th anniversary and realized their current design staff didn’t have that particular knowledge of custom lettering, Toil was hired to take on the project.

A Rough Sketch

The creative lead at the ASL who had a particular vision for the identity was John Kneapler. He's an excellent graphic designer and recently retired as president of John Kneapler Design, Inc., an award-winning graphic design and branding firm based in New York City. John has also been painting at the Art Students League for over 30 years.

He shared these rough sketches, seen above, of a few possible layouts to explore. Having a reference as a starting point is always helpful. In the first round of design, we focused on creating a 1:1 version of the design, cleaned up and vectorized. We both noticed there could be improvements in the letter shapes, hierarchy, and spacing, and quickly explored many other layouts to see which ones work best.

Since I've been designing custom typography for over a decade, recreating the letterforms from the sketch was a breeze. It starts with creating guides to identify the baseline, x-height, cap height, and overshoots. Place anchor points at the far end of each shape. Then, pull either vertically or horizontally, making sure that each Bezier pulls with the same amount of effort. Yawning yet?

Leaving No Stone Unturned

From the start, we identified a few key elements that had to exist within the design: celebrating 150 years, the full ASL name, and the year of founding. Ideally, more decorative elements like a wreath or a banner, which were inspired by early ASL logos. John and I collaborated to explore as many different layouts and treatments as possible.

Every aspect of the letters was scrutinized. We were on calls for hours, making the tiniest refinements. We often pushed a direction as far as we could, and then looped back to start fresh on a new idea. At this point, the original sketches were of no help since the design treatments had evolved so much. This iterative process allowed us to avoid being attached to a single solution.

The thing about creating custom lettering is that even the smallest adjustments can completely change the tone of a word. We embraced this and pushed until we had options to share for final approval. Though I had my favorites, I knew we were presenting great work. Whichever direction the President of the ASL picked, I would be happy with.

The Stamp of Approval

After a few rounds of edits, the final logo was approved (YAY). A playful lockup of letters that work perfectly together, along with distressed elements to feel handmade. This balance of modern and heritage felt just right.

The new logo was unveiled at the Art Students League of New York’s 150th Anniversary Gala—an extraordinary celebration honoring the 200,000 artists who have studied at the League since its founding in 1875.

Congrats again on the milestone, ASL! I’m so lucky that Toil has a small part in its history.