IAN CHEN
WORKEXPERIENCERECOGNITIONCONTACTIan Chen is a graphic designer based in Brooklyn with a deep passion for branding, typography, type design, and editorial design. Earned a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Currently a Design fellow at Interbrand. Previously worked at Gretel, Red Antler, and FCB Chicago.  Past clients include Tempur-Pedic, Prudential, Verizon, RMHC, New York City FC, North One. New York City FC
Brand identity
Shanghai Museum of Glass
Brand identity / Type design
Sorry Mom, I Lied  
Editorial design
Poetry Foundation
Brand identity / Type design
Nike Running Club
Spec campaign design / Art direction / Motion design
Coachella
Brand identity
Red Antler  
Brand identity / Social post design / Print design
LA Opera
Brand identity
Archive Interbrand
SEP 2024 – Present
Gretel
OCT – DEC 2023
Red Antler
JUL – OCT 2023
FCB Chicago
JUN – AUG 2022
Museum 2050  
AUG 2021  –  JAN  2022Tokyo TDC Annual Awards 2024 Excellent Work
TDC69 Award  
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D&AD New Blood
The Portfolios Winner
Young Ones ADC
Merit
59th Annual GDUSA Design Award
Winner
Red Dot Award
Design Concept Shortlist
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@ianchen.8
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chenianrz@gmail.com
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Extended Portfolio
Upon request

New York City FC
Brand identity


Ten years since its founding, New York City FC asked itself what it would take to reach the upper echelons of MLS clubs and New York City teams. An ambitious plan that included a new soccer stadium in Queens and significant investment in player development was in the works. But to continue building a devoted base of hardcore fans while inspiring new ones to join would mean reframing what the club stood for beyond the game. Any team that seeks to stake its claim to NYC needs to live up to the city’s colossal character. Our approach was to develop a visual and verbal identity that embodied the relentless hustle and eclectic spirit of the city.


Gretel: Ryan Moore, Justin Au, Dylan Mulvaney, Andrea Trabucco-Campos, Etienne Murphy, Alaijah Hampton, John Choi, Hayato Yamane, Ian Beckman Reagan, Kasia Galla, Murad Assaf, Ian Chen
Frere-Jones Type: Tobias Frere-Jones, Nina Stössinger, Christine Bateup
New York City FC: Lauren Scrima, Milo Kowalski, Kylie Woyat, Nuria Tarré, James Wilkins Eight million interlocking stories


To capture the spirit of our club and city, we developed The Five Borough Bond— a creative platform that serves as our core ethos and guiding metaphor.

The Five Borough Bond embraces contrast and juxtaposition, a wild mix of ever-changing local flavors and iconic legacies. The relentless hustle and colossal scale of the city—edgy, tough and resilient— enriched by the pulsing rhythm and poetic beauty of everyday life, interwoven with unexpected moments made possible through eight million interlocking stories.

By forging bonds across all five boroughs and celebrating the stories of New Yorkers brought together by NYCFC, we are continuously building the future of our club, our city, and our game.
From local club to global icon


The club’s updated badge builds on its subway token-inspired predecessor crafted by Matthew Wolff in collaboration with founding fans. The overall structure was optimized for legibility at small scales, while individual elements were refined to work together harmoniously or used independently as a suite of marks. 

A refined monogram sits at the center of the badge, designed with enhanced balance and confident proportions that evoke a strength and pride that matches the bold spirit of the city. Its construction mirrors the geometry and flared serifs in the identity’s subway signage inspired typefaces, featured in the outer ring lettering. The badge is punctuated by a pentagon on each side as a continued reference to the five boroughs of New York City. Developed in a close collaboration between Gretel, Frere-Jones Type, and the New York City FC team.
The characters of the City


The team’s custom typeface is a modern imagination of the iconic pre-modernist signage used across the Independent Subway System ​(IND), which has connected New York City’s five boroughs since its construction in 1932. Concepted in-house and drawn by Frere-Jones Type, ‘NYCFC’ appears in two styles.

‘Local’ is built on the rectilinear geometry and petit serif flares found in monospaced tile lettering, which is still prominent in stations citywide. ‘Express’ marries the same details with the bold and idiosyncratic proportions featured in the IND’s directional signage. Their interchanged use in combination with inset details and companion pictograms reflects the voice of a team that represents all of New York City – loud, irreverent and cacophonous.
Weaving together NYC’s urban fabric


The brand’s mosaic system is a visual representation of the Five Borough Bond — individual components of various shapes and colors, woven together into an interconnected tapestry. Modular by nature, mosaics build and scale into structural elements, camouflage patterns, and generative textures that portray the different neighborhoods across the boroughs. As a system, these brand elements weave together the countless stories that unite the club and the city, from the pavement to the pitch.