ABOUT

The Design Museum is known internationally as a champion for architectural, fashion, graphic, industrial and product design. Founded in 1989 as a charity and based on the banks of the river Thames in London, it exists to promote a greater understanding of the value of design. Due to this success, it has outgrown its original home and will relocate to the former Commonwealth Institute building in Kensington, London in 2016.

Its new home will have "10,000 square meters" of total space, giving it three times more than in its current location, with vastly improved learning facilities and a dedicated gallery to display its permanent collection. The move offers not only significantly more space and great accessibility, but also a unique opportunity to revisit the visual and typographic identity of the museum.

DESIGN CONCEPT

The concept of new identity design is based on the "dimensional figure (10,000 m² = 100 x 100)" as a foundation, which is visually translated into a 100 x 100 grid system, where the entire identity elements are drawn on it. From logotype to patterns and icons, the intertwining lines not only create all compelling visual elements, but also express the meaning of connecting ideas and people within the “space”, which is one of the Design Museum’s culture. This unique and dynamic system will invite surprise and flexibility across all media with a unified visual language.

The logo design symbolizes the letterform of “M” and succinctly reveals the architectural signature of the Commonwealth Institute, a Grade II listed building: Hyperbolic paraboloid copper roof, with low brick plinth clad in grey-blue glazing. To define the colour scheme of this visual identity, an extracted palette of copper and blue from the building epitomises the historical background of the museum as well as its forward-thinking of vision, mission and values, creating a mixture of classic and contemporary tone of voice.

Please note that this project was completed as the brief of ISTD (International Society of Typographic Designers), and was not commissioned by the company featured or any associated companies.