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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Graphic designer Izzy Walter looks out of Gallery 263 at 263 Pearl St., Cambridgeport, past the new logo that Walter designed. (Photo: Gallery 263)

Cambridgeport’s Gallery 263 has a new look ahead of its 15th birthday celebration June 10, with a revamped logo by Izzy Walter, graphic designer at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a website redesign. The rebrand was led by board officer Ben Wallace, gallery communications director Allison Gray said.

Another change is less obvious: That streamlined, image-focused website is now a dot-org that redirects from the dot-com. That’s to highlight the nonprofit status of the gallery – the only art space in Cambridgeport and one of a handful of nonprofit art spaces in Greater Boston, Gray noted in materials released Wednesday.

The previous logo merged the gallery’s numerals (taken from its street address on Pearl Street) and turned over the resulting negative space to three complementary greens in a box topped by the word “Gallery” – a design-y but literal presentation. The new version drops the “gallery” and uses only the “263” in an askew, asymmetrical representation of a canvas. The colors are richer.

The retired logo.

“We took into account the vibrance and fluidity of the art space to create a truly multifunctional logo and visual identity system, which will give the gallery room to grow to its full potential in years to come, while staying true to its unique perspective and expressive flair,” Walter said.

Wallace had bona fides to lead the redesign as associate creative director at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and as the gallery’s former board president and current secretary.

“During the time I’ve served on the board of Gallery 263, I’ve seen the organization mature and take its place among the most respected arts organizations in the region,” Wallace said in a press release. “From its spirited beginnings in the aughts to today, it has been the gallery’s commitment to building a community around the practice and appreciation of art, and the compounding efforts of that community, that have allowed the gallery to thrive all these years. More than providing a refreshed contemporary look, this rebrand recognizes the gallery’s growth and gives a visual voice to its ethos: a space where anyone is welcome from any perspective to share, create and feel the wonder of art. ”

Gallery 263 is at 263 Pearl St., Cambridgeport.