DISCOVER

The brief

The project brief was delivered by Dr. Alex Reynolds, who represented Poole Museum as the client. She is the Our Museum Collections Officer. The brief had covered Poole Museum’s aims with the Our Museum project and informed us about their ambitions and their intended audiences.

Their goal is to create a maritime gallery that is contemporary, sustainable and relevant. They wish to transform the museum into a cultural centre which also functions as a community place that is reflective of the needs and interests of the local people.

We had been tasked to create a visual identity for this project. They needed a logo and a brand which are contemporary yet work alongside with their current logo.

While I was listening to Dr. Reynolds, I made notes and I tried to capture the essence of her talk. I focused on the words and phrases she used with the most enthusiasm as I thought they are the ones which will help us to understand what the museum and its new project really need from the new brand.

Figure 9.: Keywords extracted from the brief. (Maritime, Stories, People, Alive, Dynamic, Energy Changing, Living history Harbour & Home Openness & Accessibility Relevance &Responsiveness Generosity & Care.)

Who is the Target

Audience?

• Local people • Artists and Creatives • Families • Younger People • Volunteers

Research

Poole Museum visit

We took a visit to Poole Museum together to carry out primary research on the scene and to look for visual inspiration. We went through the main site and took photos while we were also having discussion about our impressions.

I focused on finding inspiration in forms, colours, typography and shapes. I took photos of the pottery collection as they have broad colour palette and typographies with maritime connections. I captured the ceilings of the different parts of the museum as the timber roof gives so significant characteristic to them that I thought it could become a starting point when designing the logo, even though I was not sure back then how it will feed exactly into it.

We had been lucky to find notes left by the public on the walls of the Our Museum Project Lab, which has been created for people to contribute thoughts and ideas informing the design of the new maritime gallery spaces. I did use these findings for inspiration in the later stages of the design process.

Figure 10. (on this page): Poole Museum front Figure 11. (top left): Ceramics made in a Poole manufactury. Figure 12. (top right): Timber roof detail I. Figure 13-15. (middle left): Notes, left by public in the Project Lab, have influenced my finial color choice of the brand and the logo. Figure 16. (middle right): Timber roof of Scaplen’s Court. The ‘Grade 1’ listed medieval building belongs to the Poole Museum. Figure 17. (bottom left): Signage of a boat company. Early 1900’s Figure 18. (bottom right): Timber roof detail II.

Poole town walk

After our visit to the museum, I took a walk in the town centre of Poole to capture its look and its atmosphere. It was a busy Saturday afternoon with many families being on move. I have noticed that many people were using the tiny roads leading into the high street. That made me think that those quieter areas with large blank walls could provide a surface for reaching out to local people. I intended to take photos without recognizable people on them as I didn’t want to ask for their consent.

Figure 19. (to the left): Sea Music Sculpture at the quay of Poole. Figure 20-22.: Streets of Poole offer lots of surface which could be used by local artist to reach out to local people who use these paths every day to access the high street.

Museum branding and logo designs

We received a brief from our tutor, Alice, about different museum brandings and logo designs. It has covered so many different directions that whichever way I tried to extend my research, I kept coming across the same examples. Therefore, what I did, was to go through them looking for the features which makes them outstanding and can provide inspiration for my design.

I also looked at articles of current logotrends to have a picture of contemporary logo designs. I did research online about Poole and logos related to the town. I found that most of them include various shades of blue.

Figure 26.: Science Museum logo is a shape made of typography. Figure 23.: The Willi Burth Museum logo is dynamic, asymetric, complex yet effective.

Figure 25.: Photographic campaign of the Maritime Museum of Rotterdam showing people who relate to the sea.

Figure 27: A reflective, dynamic logo of the MMCA. It functions as a window and its content is variable. Figure 24.: The Natural History Museum logo is using a bright photographic image and hierarchy in text.

Figure 28.: The Tate logo shows openness, fluidity. It provides opportunity for individual interpretation.