Berklee’s New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What’s Next
Since its founding in 1945, Berklee has been shaped by a revolutionary idea: that the best preparation for a music career comes through the study and practice of contemporary music. Today, that idea has grown into a global institution that prepares artists and creative leaders to thrive across disciplines and industries. Our community now includes campuses in Boston, New York City, and Valencia, Spain, as well as Berklee Online, Summer Programs, City Music, and thousands of alumni whose artistry and leadership shape culture around the world.
One of the most significant chapters in that growth was the merger of Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory. The merger expanded the institution’s creative reach and brought together two powerful legacies: Berklee’s leadership in contemporary music education and the Conservatory’s deep excellence in dance, theater, and classical music.
We also know that generations of students, alumni, faculty, and staff, are connected to each version of the Berklee identity. Their version reminds them of the practice rooms where they found their sound, the teachers who shaped them, the friends who became collaborators, and the moments and places that still evoke that time in their lives. Symbols become part of memory and belonging, which is why changing them is never something we take lightly.
At the same time, Berklee has continued to grow, and our identity needed to grow with it. With the launch of a new logo and visual identity system, Berklee now has a unified expression that reflects the institution we have become and supports the future we are building. Please see additional information about the evolution of the Berklee brand and website refresh project below.
Why Now?
The way people encounter Berklee today is fundamentally different from what it was even a decade ago. Prospective students may first meet us through a phone screen, a social post, a video performance, a search result, an email, a livestream, a campus visit, or a story shared by an alum. Families compare programs across disciplines and formats. Audiences discover student and alumni work across platforms. Employers, donors, partners, and the public experience Berklee through hundreds of digital and physical touchpoints.
At the same time, Berklee itself has become more expansive. We are not a single program, a single campus, or a single pathway. Over the past 14 years and since we launched our previous visual identity in 2015, we’ve grown into an interconnected creative community with an expansion of campuses and degree offerings.
2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2017 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berklee Valencia founded | Berklee Online starts granting degrees | Boston Conservatory merges with Berklee | Berklee NYC launches | Bachelor of Arts offered that does not require any musical training |
That complexity is a strength, but it also requires clarity. Our brand system needs to help people understand the relationship between Berklee College of Music, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Berklee Online, Berklee NYC, Berklee Valencia, and the many programs and experiences that make up the institution. It needs to honor the distinctiveness of these communities while making the larger Berklee story easier to understand.
Our visual identity needs to work as hard as our community does. It needs to be clear, flexible, and contemporary. It needs to reflect Berklee’s many disciplines, locations, programs, and creative pathways while preserving the energy and creative spirit that make this place unmistakable.
A Thoughtful and Collaborative Process
The new visual identity was developed through a careful process of research, design exploration, internal collaboration, and testing. This work included focus groups with students, faculty, and staff (from all campuses and schools); survey feedback from alumni, supporters, family members, and more, as well as conversations with institutional leaders and teams whose work brings the Berklee brand to life every day.
Those conversations reinforced something important: Berklee’s identity must hold many truths at once. It must feel bold enough for contemporary music, expansive enough for the performing arts, sophisticated enough for global audiences, practical enough for daily institutional use, and flexible enough to support everything from institutional campaigns to academic programs, performances, and alumni storytelling.
The goal was to build a stronger foundation for how Berklee communicates across the institution. That foundation includes a refreshed visual system, clearer brand architecture, updated standards, new templates, and practical tools that will help our community create more consistent and compelling work.
What Changes Now
The new Berklee logos and visual identity standards are now available for use. The most visible and highest-priority touchpoints will transition first, including core digital channels, social media avatars, key communications, priority marketing materials, and materials connected to the upcoming academic year. A brand system of this scale won’t fully transition over night and will take time to implement thoughtfully.
What Comes Next: New Websites This Fall
The next major expression of this work will be the launch of the redesigned berklee.edu and subdomains this fall.
The website redesign builds on the same strategy behind the new visual identity: making berklee.edu more intuitive, accessible, and compelling to experience. The new site will bring together refreshed messaging, updated design, improved user pathways, and a more modern digital experience for prospective students, families, alumni, faculty, staff, audiences, and partners.
For future students in particular, the website is often the front door to Berklee. It needs to help them see themselves here, understand their options, explore programs, imagine creative futures, and take the next step with confidence. For the broader Berklee community, it needs to reflect the excellence and energy of the work happening across the institution.
Share Your Feedback
Our students continue to redefine music and the performing arts every day. This new visual identity is designed to support that work—not by changing who Berklee is, but by helping us present ourselves to the world with greater clarity and confidence for the years ahead. We’ve created a frequently asked questions page and will continue to update it as the new visual identity rolls out and the new websites launch this fall. Please use the form below to share additional questions or feedback.
