Founded in 1921, the Council on Foreign Relations is a prestigious, non-partisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher. An independent resource and forum for its members, the Council serves government officials, business executives, and journalists, as well as educators and other interested citizens. Its mission is to facilitate a greater understanding of the world, and the complex foreign policy choices facing both the United States, and the global community.

Recognizing the need to embrace the organization's distinguished heritage whilst designing an identity system both relevant and accessible across varied media, two signatures were created: one a wordmark for external communications; the other a monogram for use primarily in membership communication. A hierarchy and grid system was then applied to the organization's numerous offerings (Task Force Reports, websites, books, and working papers) to differentiate them whilst concurrently reinforcing their identity.

The brown signature and monogram are the identity system's main features, complemented by a typographic-based visual system and a color palette of deep earth tones.