This week’s newsletter is a bit different. I wanted to share these first-rate creative graphics — and a peek inside the process that inspired them — and this seemed like a perfect time. Plus, I have news for the women solopreneurs in our SOLO community.

How do you capture 100 years in design?

Ever wonder what it’s like to delve into one of the world’s most prestigious art collections for design inspiration? That’s exactly what happened when a Brooklyn design studio was tasked with creating a centennial visual identity for the Morgan Library & Museum.

The challenge? Capture 100 years of cultural heritage in a fresh, contemporary way to celebrate this important anniversary.

*Exterior of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City*

From private library to public treasure

The Morgan began as financier J. Pierpont Morgan’s personal library, housed in an Italian Renaissance-style palazzo designed by Charles McKim of McKim, Mead & White in New York City. In 1924, his son Jack transformed the library into a public institution — one of the most significant cultural gifts in American history.

Today, the Morgan holds priceless manuscripts, rare books, master drawings, and musical scores. (It’s also one of my favorite places to visit whenever I’m in New York — at Madison and 36th Street.)

But how do you represent such diverse collections in one cohesive visual identity?

Inside the design process

The designers at Miko McGinty Inc., who have worked with the Morgan since 2008, started with fundamental questions: What makes a centennial logo different? How could they honor tradition while staying quintessentially “Morgan”?

They began with the Morgan’s house typefaces, Dante and Kievit, established in Pentagram’s 2006 identity design for the library.

Their creative journey led to an unexpected discovery. While researching Belle da Costa Greene, the Morgan’s first director (currently being celebrated in a major exhibit at the Morgan), they found something special — Greene’s distinctive handwriting.

*For this graphic, designer Julia Ma captured the handwriting of Belle da Costa Greene, the first Director of the Morgan Library.*

But they didn’t stop there. The team dug deep into the Morgan’s collections, hunting for representations of “100” across centuries of cultural artifacts. They found them everywhere: in musical scores, medieval manuscripts, and even ancient cuneiform tablets.

Each discovery represented a different facet of the Morgan’s collection, explains designer Julia Ma, who created custom drawings based on these historical references.

The result? A primary centennial logo plus 13 unique interpretations of “100,” each telling its own story while remaining part of a cohesive system.

*Final Morgan Library & Museum centennial graphics. See below for source details.*

The final centennial identity included these 13 additional “100s” representing the Morgan’s collection:

Row 1: Main centennial logo with the 100 in Kievit; The Rose Haggadah; Albrecht Dürer’s Adam and Eve; Giovanni Battista Marcola’s drawings; 100 in cuneiform

Row 2: Charlotte Brontë’s The Professor; Gutenberg Bible; John Milton’s Paradise Lost; Blaise Cendrars’s La prose du Transsibérien; Jane Austen’s Lady Susan

Row 3: Verdi’s Otello; Parmigianino’s drawings; Kodak film; Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray

When past meets possibility

The final identity harmonizes these varied elements with a clean, contemporary main logo. Together, they create a visual system that celebrates both history and modernity — proving that even century-old institutions can find fresh ways to tell their stories.

For visual thinkers, it’s a masterclass in finding inspiration in unexpected places. Whether designing for an established cultural institution or your own creative business, the Morgan project shows how diving deep into inspirational sources can lead to rich visual solutions. It prompts us to ask: Where else should we look?

* All images are © The Morgan Library & Museum. Special thanks to the Miko McGinty Inc. design team for their assistance. For a fuller account of the design process, read Creating the Morgan’s Centennial Graphic Identity on the Museum’s website.

🚺 Virtual co-working for women solopreneurs

I'm running a pilot project to host virtual co-working sessions for women solopreneurs, starting Tuesday, November 19th. Join us for 50 minutes of silent individual work on your postponed To-Do list items. Bookkeeping? Drafting social media posts? Following up on client leads? You know your list!

I’m envisioning a virtual study hall with women friends in quiet congeniality.

Then, if you choose to stay an extra 15 minutes, you can meet other women solopreneurs in three quick breakout rooms.

There are no expectations, preparation, or fees to participate. It’s my experiment to help women build stronger solo businesses.

To participate, reply to this email to express your interest. I’ll send registration details and the Zoom link. The first session is Tuesday, November 19th, at 1 pm ET/10 am PT. Sessions will run each Tuesday for the next five weeks.

❤️ Fresh finds for creative minds

Here are this week’s gems from around the Web for all types of visual thinkers and solopreneurs:

💾 Meet the Icon Queen
Susan Kare has designed thousands of icons for hundreds of companies, including the original Mac interface icons. This 2019 YouTube interview showcases Kare’s design talent and the impact of her early work on today’s digital interface design. Plus, it reveals the serendipity behind how she got hired for the job of a lifetime.

➕ How Do You Graph a Culture?
Since serving as Chief Innovation Officer at Acumen, entrepreneur and philanthropist Sasha Dichter has guided teams to create a strong culture (defined as “how we do things around here”). In this blog post, he shows how to translate an organization’s culture into a 2x2 visual of a “Culture Graph.” Both the concept and his visuals are compelling and inspiring. Read and consider: What else might you graph in your work and experience?

✅ How Not to Quit
We’ve all been there as solopreneurs — at wit’s end, ready to walk away from a project, client, or habit-changing commitment. While it’s easier to give up, in this blog post entrepreneur Josh Spector shows how to tilt the scales in your favor. His simple steps help you stick with what you started.