Evolving a heritage gallery into a global art institution.

DAG, formerly Delhi Art Gallery, has spent three decades championing India’s modern masters, yet by 2019 its visual voice still carried the cues of a niche collectors circle. Leadership wanted a brand that could speak to new generations, court global audiences and sit comfortably alongside the world’s major institutions without losing the weight of its archives. We stepped in to lead the transformation.

We began by naming the core tension: preservation and progress. Ornamental flourishes made way for bold typography, modular grids and a refined palette drawn from Indian pigments. Motion guidelines animate the new monogram with gallery level restraint, creating a thread from catalogue spines to exhibition trailers to social fragments.

Digital was rebuilt from the ground up. The site now behaves like a living journal with editorial layouts, deep exhibition archives, curatorial essays and high resolution zooms that reward slow looking. Micro interactions echo the pacing of a gallery visit, and a headless CMS allows curators to publish in minutes rather than months.

Since launch DAG has mounted its largest exhibition to date, A Treasury of Life: Indian Company Paintings c. 1790 to 1835, drawing record footfall and international press. A reminder that legacy institutions can enter the global present without loosening their roots when design holds the past in one hand and the possible in the other.