Museum audience-centered approach or corporate identity branding oriented? Logo branding, identities, museums sustainability, visual language, universalization, audiences and internationalization processes... One focus for all. One logo. Would you take a huge risk on the unknown one? Who do you work with? Museums, their logos, their designers and their stories of creation... How hard to find most of them. Why is it so hard? Why do museums avoid explaining the creation process of their corporate identities as they transition to digitalization? While seeing almost all the breakthroughs in social media on their websites, why is the logo design process, the chief factor of their branding, not mentioned? Well, at least we talked about it.
There is a website like this: Museum World Ranking where you can vote for museums and see their ranking according to various categories, you can also check some current news. We preferred the list according to the "ranking" category. Here are the logos, designers and the stories behind the top 10 museums via Museum World Ranking. It's showtime!
- Musée du Louvre (Paris, France)By Pierre Bernard.
Un ciel. Ce ciel, noir et blanc, captation photographique, génère autant de réflexions que d’incertitudes. (A sky and this sky, black and white, photographic capture generates as many reflections as uncertainties.)
In the book 'Graphisme et musées', the choice of the Musée du Louvre's logo was described as follows: "C’est en 1988, qu’un concours est lancé pour sélectionner le studio graphique chargé de créer une identité visuelle. L’initiateur de cette opération est le Centre National des Arts Plastiques, dépendant du Ministère de la Culture. Le jury international, présidé par Ieoh Ming Pei, choisit l’atelier Grapus. Celui-ci se voit proposer un contrat d’un an pour concevoir et réaliser un logo, une papeterie, administrative et un principe d’édition." (In 1988, a competition was launched to select the graphic studio responsible for creating a visual identity. The initiator of this operation is the National Center for Plastic Arts, dependent on the Ministry of Culture. The international jury, chaired by Ieoh Ming Pei, chooses the Grapus workshop. He is offered a one-year contract to design and produce a logo, stationery, administrative and publishing principle.)
Designed by Pierre Bernard, the logo of the Musée du Louvre aimed to emphasize that viewing œuvre is a sublime experience. The feeling of watching something as universal and extraordinary as watching a natural phenomenon, for example the sunset or the sky. When you look at the sky in the logo, do you feel like you are looking at the mix of the cover of Georges Bataille's book 'Le bleu du ciel' and the sky in Gustave Le Gray's photographs? (Book cover: Georges Bataille, Le bleu du ciel, 1957.) We feel that way. Although the design team and creative consultants are considering changing the Louvre's logo, no upcoming action has been taken yet. We'll see when the hazy weather dissipates. On verra bien... - National Museum of China 中国国家博物馆 (Beijing, China)NMC is the second most visited museum after the Musée du Louvre in the world's most visited museums lists. The National Museum of China (中国国家博物馆) is referred to as the National Expo. The originality of the logo comes from the structural design of the west façade of the National Fair building. The main entrance view of the National Expo and its colonnade are outlined by simple outline lines. The logo of the National Museum of China is one of the most widely designed logos we have encountered among museums in the world. This is due to the magnificent structure, for sure. But we couldn't find out who designed the logo. It is likely to have been designed by the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China. After all, in 1949 the museum was under the Ministry of Culture of the Central People's Government (中华人民共和国文化部). Perhaps an open call announcement has been made. If you have any information about the designer, please enlighten us.
- British Museum (London, United Kingdom)One of the first names that come to mind when it comes to British Typography: Baskerville. Timeless, simple and clear. The logo is adapted from the font Baskerville, designed by John Baskerville during the same period in which the museum was founded in 1753. Therefore, the museum remains faithful to its logo. Baskerville is also the museum's official serif font in design works. Black font on white background. No need to take risks, right?
- The Met (NYC, USA)My name is The Metropolitan Museum of Art. But you just call me The Met.
The museum who decided to become intimate after 146 years. In 2016, the museum's new logo was released. Then the critics attacked, especially if you remember the article titled "The Metropolitan Museum of Art's New Logo Is a Typographic Bus Crash" by Justin Davidson. Targeted the new logo with many criticisms from Sheena Wagstaff's curatorial past with Tate to Wolff Olins's giving identity and design to British museums, and compared it to a red double-decker bus. Then he made another reference to The Museum of Modern Art's use of the 'MoMA'. Do you think he was right? First of all, the red color chosen is the only color that parallels The Met's corporate identity. Passion, vitality and attention. These are the ones they want, right? The Met Gala, or Met Ball, The Met... Well, do they have any choice but to use the nickname for The Metropolitan Museum of Art?
Logo design by Wolff Olins. - National Gallery (London, UK)The logo designer of the National Gallery... Who are you dear sir, ma'am? There's no sign. It's not our job to give up. Let's investigate a little more. Have you looked everywhere? All the pages of the past... Then suddenly something like "walk in a room like god sent you" happened. Although we entered his site, but that's okay. Charles Saumarez Smith, God really sent you... You saved us! A short excerpt from his article, but we can't tell you how relieved we are: "... I couldn’t remember who had designed the National Gallery’s logotype, which was in the process of being designed when I arrived in July 2002 and has survived pretty intact ever since. The answer, I think, is that it was done by Lee Hoddy, the then creative director of Bamber Forsyth. The font used – and which they still use – is (very appropriately) Bembo: conservative, but clear, legible and smart." Whoever designed it should be congratulated! Read this with a British accent, please.
- The Palace Museum (Forbidden City, China)
We can say that it is the fairest logo choice ever. At least from all we know about. In 2004, an open call for logo design is created by issuing a statement. The jury must choose five designs out of 2788 designs. When two designs get the same vote, this time they submit six designs to the public. The design details of the museum logo are mentioned as follows: "The design of the logo of the Palace Museum takes the shape of the word "Palace". One point of the word 'gong' is drawn from the graphic elements of 'sea water and river teeth' and ' jade bi'; the two 'mouths' of 'gong' are in line with the architectural concept of the Forbidden City's 'front court and rear bed'; under the word 'gong' It is not sealed, which means that the palace was closed in the past, but the Palace Museum is open today. The sea water above the shape supports the jade bi, which means that it is as precious as an arched bi, symbolizing that the Palace Museum owns and properly preserves more than 1 million precious cultural relics; The color uses the typical colors of the Forbidden City-gold, yellow, red, and blue as the keynotes. focusing on highlighting this oriental personality, making the logo in m any Chinese and foreign countries." Having a white background and a vivid color choice of logo color reminds us of the style of Mahjong game tiles, one of our favorite games. Mahjong 麻將 is a tile-based game that was developed in the 19th century in China, a game of skill, strategy, and luck. So charming: Both!
Logo design by Shao Bolin, a stamp designer and a photographer. - Tate Modern (London, UK)Oh our Tate, museologists' raisin cake. Tate Britain and Tate Modern in London, Tate Liverpool, and Tate St. Ives in Cornwall... All together in one: Tate. The Tate team wanted to unite all four venues with a common philosophy. Tate's branding belongs to North, which got rid of multiple logo variations and gained a single logo in 2016. Here, the desire not to redesign but “evolve” the branding. This is what happened. And we met again with Wolff Olins for the foundations of the original brand. Marina Willer, creative director at Wolff Olins, created a new brand for Tate themselves in 2000 during the construction of Tate Modern. The framework of the theme they designed was defined as "look again, think again". A logo with a dynamic look was preferred. Willer had created the logo not on the computer, but by doing different ‘Tate’ designs and projecting it, like an installation and taking lots of photographs and animated them, then took screengrabs of the animation, which became the final mark of the brand.
But it was quite difficult for digital media and print. Already at Stephen Gilmore, partner at North, said: “We wanted to create one logo which was still recognisably Tate but could be used more dynamically and exist more effectively in the digital world.” They also got rid of most of their blackheads. The number of dots has been reduced from 3,000 to 340, which aims to make it “more functional” across all mediums such as digital and print materials. Great Minds Think Alike... - Musei Vaticani (Vatican City)Who should be consulted for the Musei Vaticani logo? With the Pontifical Council for Culture, probably because it was prepared in parallel with the symbols of the flag? Well then, let's examine the symbols of the flag. In the meantime, maybe someone who knows about the Musei Vaticani logo designer will come out. Flag description: two vertical bands of yellow (hoist side) and white with the arms of the Holy See, consisting of the crossed keys of Saint Peter surmounted by the three-tiered papal tiara, centered in the white band; the yellow color represents the pope's spiritual power, the white his worldly power. Have you seen the letter U in the Musei Vaticani logo change into the letter V of Vatican City, or is it because we stared at the logo for a long time?
Here we will leave some information that you probably do not know. "Want to see all of the Vatican Museums' collects? If you spend a minute looking at each painting in the Vatican museums, it would take you 4 years to see them all completely." Our heads are spinning as museologists... - Natural History Museum (London, UK)
The history of the collection can be traced back to the 17th century, to the private collection of Sir Hans Sloane. Originally, the Natural History Museum was part of British Museum. It was officially separated from it in 1963 but was known as British Museum (Natural History) for almost 30 years after that. The logo falls into two parts: the emblem (the distinctive capital “N”) and the wordmark. The wordmark is given in three lines. The first two are in bold, while the third one is regular. The most interesting thing about the logo is its ability to be transformed depending on the visual context and situation or event. To achieve this aim, the “N” may be filled with any graphic material, for instance, a photo of a flower, a dinosaur, a shell, a planet etc. For instance, each of the letters “U” is different from one another. The “U” in “Nature” is bold and has a rounded left end. The first “U” in “Museum” has a rounded right end. The second “U” in “Museum” has a rounded left end, but it is not bold, like its counterpart in “Nature.” We can also point out the asymmetrical “T.” It is possible that such design details symbolize the immense diversity of life.
In 2004, Hat Trick Design has revamped the visual identity for the Natural History Museum. It is the culmination of a ten-month project for the consultancy and the first update of the London museum’s marque in 15 years. The work coincides with a move by the organisation to give greater prominence to its scientific and educational remit. Diversity is the core theme in the new marque, which uses a palette of 35 images – ranging from microscopic plankton to a satellite shot of the Earth – taken by some of the world’s leading wildlife photographers.
"The work represents the diversity of nature, the diversity of the museum’s collection and the diversity of its fields of study,’ says Hat Trick Design creative director Gareth Howat. Hat Trick worked closely with Jane Wentworth, an independent brand consultant who aided the museum in defining its brand and creative brief.
And here is the design focus information on the official website:
"Our goal is to be people centered in everything we do. To that aim, our fundamental design principles are informed by the following: Content focussed, Encouraging connections, Sustainable, Maintainable, Ethical. Much of our approach to accessible design is inspired by GDS (Government Digital Service). The organisation has done a lot of research and created many assets to ensure they design so that everyone can access the services they need." Here we see the emphasis on the audience-centered. A color and a design came to the background of white and black text, and the letter "N" saved lives. State Hermitage Museum (St.Petersburg, Russia)
An exhibition in 2019: "Who Invented the Hermitage Logo?" at The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia
Thanks to the whole team for this exhibition, otherwise we would not be able to find any information about the logo of the museum. Why is it so hard to find museum logo designers and their stories? Anyway... Although we could not reach the details of the exhibition, the press release provided us with the information we wanted. The exhibition is a tribute to the memory of the St Petersburg graphic artist and designer Askold Ivanovich Kuzminsky (1938–2005), the creator of the logo for the State Hermitage.His first encounter with the museum took place in the Hermitage archaeological expedition of 1960 that was led by Grigory Grozdilov, in Pskov. His wife and many of his friends also worked here. He crossed paths with the museum in the mid-1990s to work on a corporate graphic style. Ivanovich tried to combine the Russian and Latin-alphabet (English) versions of the logo and sought motifs in distinctive works familiar to the museum’s visitors. Those were both the animals from Scythian jewellery and the grille of the gates into the Great Courtyard of the Winter Palace.
Sources:Museum World Ranking:
https://www.museumworldranking.net/?by=ranking
Musée du Louvre:
Book: Graphisme et musées' par Rouard-Snowman Margo, RMN, 1993
https://designobserver.com/feature/pierre-bernard/39111/
https://www.grapheine.com/actulogo/logo-du-louvre-soleil
https://www.t-o-m-b-o-l-o.eu/meta/le-musee-du-louvre-doit-etre-le-musee-par-excellence/
National Museum of China:
http://en.chnmuseum.cn/about_the_nmc_593/history/201911/t20191123_173503.html
https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/424329515
https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv6641331
https://new.qq.com/rain/a/20210301A000LU00
British Museum:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/sites/default/files/2019-11/DesignGuidelines_16Mar2012.pdf
The Met:
https://www.wired.com/2016/02/the-met-explains-its-controversial-new-logo/
https://wolffolins.com/case-study/the-met
https://www.vulture.com/2016/02/metropolitan-museums-new-logo-the-met.html
National Gallery:
https://charlessaumarezsmith.com/2021/06/09/typography-and-the-museum-2/
https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/5-december-2002/identity-revamp-for-the-national-gallery/
The Palace Museum:
https://k.sina.com.cn/article_1917022953_724372e900100ixw4.html#/
http://101.201.65.88/about/news/402.html
Tate Modern:
https://www.creativereview.co.uk/the-tate-logo/
https://www.wolffolins.com/case-study/tate
https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/20-26-june-2016/tate-galleries-reveals-evolving-logo-diverse-audience/
https://www.northdesign.co.uk/
Musei Vaticani:
https://m.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani-mobile/it.html
https://www.cultur-e.it/en/clients/musei-vaticani/
https://www.headout.com/blog/vatican-museums-rome/
Book: Vatican City Recent Economic and Political Developments Handbook - Strategic Information and Developments, IBP. Inc, 2007.
Natural History Museum:
https://www.hat-trickdesign.co.uk/
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/dm-style-guide/dm_general_principles.html
https://1000logos.net/natural-history-museum-logo/
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/government-digital-service
https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/14-october-2004/natural-history-museum-scores-with-hat-trick-logo/
Tha State Hermitage Museum:
https://www.meer.com/en/51340-who-invented-the-hermitage-logo
https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/explore/history/?lng=en
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