Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, also known as the Henie Onstad Art Center, is a Norwegian art institution founded by figure skater and film star Sonja Henie and her husband, shipping magnate Niels Onstad. The center opened in 1968 at Høvikodden in Bærum, Norway, and its visual identity has been tied to the building’s distinctive architecture since the very beginning.
Design and History
The logo’s origin dates to 1967, when Sonja Henie and Niels Onstad announced a competition to create the first Henie Onstad Kunstsenter poster. Although the competition drew 200 proposals, the jury found none of the drafts up to standard and instead contacted the renowned Swiss designer Siegfried Odermatt to design the art center’s new logo and poster. An adjusted version of Odermatt’s symbol still forms the basis of the Henie Onstad logo today.[1]
The logo symbol, designed by Odermatt in 1968, is based on the building’s characteristic staircase. The building was designed so that the exhibition halls spread out like a fan from the central stairwell, which is the building’s midpoint.[2] The staircase, seen from above, became Henie Onstad’s logo and remained more or less unchanged for 50 years.[3]
In 2018, the Norwegian design agency ANTI developed a new visual identity for Henie Onstad. The logo symbol was retained and refined, with the logo and wordmark cleaned up as part of a scalable, adaptable system.[2] The project received a Silver award at the 2018 European Design Awards.[3]
Meaning and Symbolism
The logo’s meaning is directly tied to the architecture of the building itself. The central staircase, which the logo depicts from above, is the structural heart of the art center, with exhibition rooms fanning out from it like a fan, a stretched hand, or an unfurled maple leaf.[4] The symbol thus serves as a direct graphic reference to the building’s unique form and the architectural concept behind it.[2]
Typography and Design
As part of the 2018 identity, ANTI developed a custom display typeface called HOK Display, created in collaboration with type designer Ellmer Stefan.[2] The typeface was designed to reference the building’s architecture, specifically the fact that the building was designed with no 90-degree angles. By removing all sharp angles from the letters, the designers found an expressive distinctiveness that became the foundation for HOK Display.[3]
The font was drawn in two styles: a classic grotesque version and an expressive version. The variation between the two mirrors Henie Onstad’s artistic profile, which consists of both established and contemporary artists, and also invokes the breaking of light, a fitting effect given that Sonja Henie wanted the exhibition rooms to be rich in lighting.[3]
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