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Gates Foundation

A rebrand and identity system for a world-renowned nonprofit entering a new chapter of impact.

Pentagram dynamically expresses the Gates Foundation's new chapter, offering an identity that underscores the optimism of the foundation's milestone investment and its role in helping vulnerable communities reach their full potential sooner.

The logotype's individual letters link together to represent the network of partnerships and programs that the foundation supports. Lupi and her team used portion of the monogram's form to create 'gates,' which are strategically employed as a visual metaphor and framework throughout the identity system.

Lupi's approach was to provide the foundation with an ownable system that enhances opportunities for visual storytelling, highlighting the partnerships and real human stories that are at the heart of its work.

The foundation's written content traverses multiple tones and audiences. Utilizing multiple expressions of Noto, the rebrand offers typesetting guidelines for a range of materials, from functional policy appeals to expressive press releases.

The gates are utilized as a tool to dynamically frame the content that documents the foundation's real-world impact. They expand, collapse, and reorient to support stories, photography, video, quotes, and data across the brand.

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About the project

Marking a defining moment in its history, the Gates Foundation unveiled the largest philanthropic pledge of modern times, along with a timeline for concluding its operations. To support this transition, Pentagram led a comprehensive rebrand that captures the sense of optimism and possibility guiding the foundation’s future.

In early 2025, a landmark announcement outlined the foundation’s plan to double its spending to $200 billion over the next 20 years, with operations set to end in 2045. By committing its full resources within this period, the organization aims to significantly accelerate progress toward improving and saving lives. This shift was introduced alongside a streamlined identity under the name Gates Foundation. Pentagram partner Giorgia Lupi and her team created a dynamic system to reflect this new direction, emphasizing both the scale of the investment and the goal of helping vulnerable communities reach their full potential more quickly.

With a long history of collaboration with the Gates Foundation, Lupi brought deep familiarity with its communications and audiences to the project. Her previous work includes campaigns for gender equality, the foundation’s 25th anniversary, the Goalkeepers initiative, and annual reports. The new identity needed to balance the organization’s established data-driven approach with a renewed sense of urgency and optimism. Lupi’s strategy centered on developing a distinctive system that expands opportunities for visual storytelling, highlighting the partnerships and personal narratives that define the foundation’s impact.

At its core, the Gates Foundation serves as a connector—linking people, resources, and ideas. Reflecting this role, the wordmark incorporates custom ligatures. Developed in collaboration with Christian Schwartz at Commercial Type, the interconnected letterforms symbolize the network of programs and partnerships supported by the foundation. This concept extends into a monogram, where elements of the design form “gates,” used throughout the identity as both a metaphor and structural device.

These “gates” act as a flexible framework for showcasing the foundation’s real-world impact. They shift and adapt—expanding, contracting, and rotating—to frame stories, photography, video, quotes, and data. By bringing cohesion to the foundation’s diverse initiatives, sub-brands, and collaborations, the system reinforces its role as an essential partner and resource, with meaningful human outcomes at its center.

Retaining the Noto typeface family, already widely used across the foundation’s global work, was one of the few requirements for the redesign. Supporting more than 1,000 languages and 150 writing systems, Noto ensures consistency across regions and cultures. The foundation’s communications also vary widely in tone and audience, and the refreshed system uses multiple styles of Noto to address this range. Clear typographic guidelines distinguish between functional materials and more expressive content, recognizing that policy-focused communications and inspirational messaging require different treatments. Each typographic expression serves as a visual cue to guide understanding. Color also plays an important role, with Lupi’s zig-zag method generating a versatile palette that complements varying types of content.

This renewed commitment signals a major shift in how the Gates Foundation positions itself within the philanthropic sector, with a focus on strengthening systems and institutions that will endure beyond its lifespan. Pentagram’s work establishes a cohesive visual language that highlights the foundation’s role in fostering meaningful, lasting partnerships. Adaptable across audiences, platforms, and contexts, the rebrand reflects its ambitious vision while delivering the clarity, flexibility, and optimism needed to communicate its impact during this final chapter.

Client

Gates Foundation

Sector

Non-profits

Discipline

Brand Identity
Brand Strategy

Office

New York

Partner

Giorgia Lupi

Project Team

Rachel Crawford
Yoshi Torralva
Phillip Cox

Publications

Ahmedabad

Connect

Gates Foundation

Gender Equality Index UK

Location

Phone

Email