The Nationalmuseet Rebranding Project was a two month long assignment that I worked on during my study abroad experience in Copenhagen, Denmark. The goal of this assignment was to resolve the issues of the Nationalmuseet's current brand, which was designed by the agency, E-Types (below).
The Nationalmuseet is a Danish organization that boasts a collection of 14 museums across the country of Denmark. Unfortunately, these museums have suffered a loss of identity due to the dominating presence of the umbrella organization's 'N' logo. The current director of the Nationalmuseet condemns the current brand, believing it to only convey bureaucracy. I aimed to resolve these issues in my redesign.
01 Umbrella Brand Logo
In my initial sketches and iterations, I focused on designs that included the Danish crown (an element that the current director was most interested in) as well as merging the 'N' and 'M' in the organization's name together. For the longest time during this project, I stuck with a logo that fused a serif 'N' and sans serif 'M' to represent the traditional and modern elements of the organization's museums. Unfortunately, it did not resonate visually with the other materials I created, and so I scrapped it.
I eventually landed on a logo that embodied the Danish crown. However, I did not want to represent the entire crown in my logo as that has been done many times in Danish branding. Instead of making a literal vector of the crown, I chose to only use its very top. When creating my simplified vector, I made sure to level the cross' height to the cross of the 't' in the accompanying text. This would create cohesion in the complete logo.
02 Sub Brand Logos
Among the three of fourteen museums we were assigned to redesign, I first tackled the Nationalmuseet (a museum that cumbersomely shares the same name as its umbrella organization). For this logo, I drew my inspiration from some of the museum's most famous pieces. To the left, you can see the objects I referenced as well as my process. On the right, you can see the resolved logos (one with the organization's name and one without).
For my second museum, I chose the Musikmuseet. I went through the same process with the development of this logo. I spoke with an administrator in order to provide me details about the museum's most famous and historical instruments. The resolved logo brings together the top reference image, a contemporary violin, and the bottom reference image, an ancient nordic lur.
For my final museum, I chose Trelleborg, which is home to the historical Danish viking fortresses. I went about this design differently. Instead of referencing objects, I referenced the actual land. After adding all of my referred elements together, I went through a subtraction process to develop the final logos on the right.
03 Typefaces
For my primary typeface, I chose the Graphik Collection because of its maximum flexibility in communication and its ability to move effortlessly between being a central design element or playing a supporting role.
For my secondary typeface, I chose Roboto Mono due to its readability across virtual platforms and reading environments.
04 Color Schemes
For the brand's color scheme, I chose purple and orange to be the primary colors (with an extended palette). I chose purple because the color conveys nobility and royalty. However, I did not want the brand to appear exclusive. To solve this, I offset the deep color with a energetic orange that is more inviting and resonates with the warmth of Denmark's national color, red. For the secondary colors, I chose a minimal pure white and a purple-hued gray.
05 Additional Content
An example of poster design for the Musikmuseet and Nationalmuseet
An example of app design for the Nationalmuseet and its museums
An example of brochure design for Trelleborg
Thank You!
