We were commissioned by Städelschule, the renowned art school in Frankfurt am Main, to create a new identity and website on the occasion of its 200th anniversary. Our instantly recognisable, inverted logotype for the Städelschule signifies the school’s independence by forgoing the norms of institutional branding. A series of precise interventions, such as typesetting the school’s name in all lowercase letters and turning it upside-down strike a balance between the rational and the counter-intuitive. As an element of the identity we also redrew the institution’s historical seal by 3D scanning the marble bust of the school’s founder Johann Friedrich Städel. Variations of our 3D model are used across print and digital applications. The Städelschule website provides a platform for specially commissioned digital projects by artists and designers. Additional features include an extensive calendar of events, an autonomous student edited ‘blackboard’ and an archive of the school’s publications.