Evolving a heritage gallery into a global-ready art institution.

DAG (formerly Delhi Art Gallery) has spent three decades championing India’s modern masters, yet by 2019 its visual voice still wore the trappings of a niche collector’s club. The leadership wanted a brand that could speak to new generations, court global audiences and stand alongside Tate or MoMA without losing the gravitas of its archives. Lazy Eight stepped in to lead the transformation.

We began by framing the core tension—preservation × progress—and built a visual system that bridges both. Ornamental flourishes gave way to bold type, modular grids and a refined, vibrant palette lifted from Indian pigments. Motion guidelines animate the new monogram with gallery-level restraint, threading consistency from catalogue spines to Instagram Reels.

Digital was rebuilt from scratch. The site now feels like a living journal: editorial layouts, deep exhibition archives, curatorial essays and high-res zooms that invite slow looking. Micro-interactions echo gallery pacing, and a headless CMS lets curators publish in minutes rather than months.

Since launch DAG has mounted its largest show to date—“A Treasury of Life: Indian Company Paintings c. 1790-1835” (April 2025) — drawing record footfall and international press. The rebrand proves legacy institutions can step into the global present without loosening their roots; design just has to hold the past in one hand and the possible in the other.