Museum Logo and Website Redesign
As an architectural designer, I've been in awe of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). If I were to redesign their brand identity, it would combine the building form and the 4 core values of the museum.
Independent Class Project
Time Span: Oct 2024 - Dec 2024
Role: UX/ UI Designer, Researcher
Skills: Adobe Suite, Research, Graphic Design, Prototyping, Keynote, Peer Review
Concept
01
Brand Attributes
In order to understand the museum's identity, it is important to know the core audience, type of exhibits they curate, their mission, purpose, and history. The outcome of this research are 5 key principles that the NMAAHC preaches. This museum will tell the American story through the lens of African American history and culture. The museum showcases America's story and the museum is curated for all Americans.
Powerful
The NMAAHC explores the power of African Americans in shaping the nation.
Foundation
A core principle for the NMAAHC is to educate all Americans on how today's nation is partly founded on the history of African Americans.
Inclusion
The NMAAHC specifies that this is not just a history curated for one ethnic group. This is a museum for all Americans.
Collaboration
The NMAAHC exhibits are meant to be collaborative, so the visitors become participants.
Freedom
The NMAAHC exhibits define what freedom means after the struggle for civil rights.
02
Digital Roughs
Upon creating over 100 iterations of various logo designs, combining the above key principles, three logo sketches were converted to black and white digital roughs. In this phase, I could test typography palettes to intensify the connotation of each logo design.
03
Final Logo Design
Finalizing the logo design, the color scheme naturally wants to be grounded and feel meaningful. The final color palette focuses on visual accessibility by using colors with high contrast. The final logo design also uses the texture of the actual building facade as a nod to the architectural concept.
04
Replicating Brand Identity to Stationary
The next step is to determine how replicable the final logo design is. By producing a body of stationary, we can determine if the logo is easily readable at a small scale. The use of color can also create a sense of cohesion and make the body of stationary quickly identifiable.
05
Outcome
The final product is a redesign of the NMAAHC website, keeping in mind the newly designed brand identity. By creating 3 examples of what the new scrolling website would look like, one can see how the color palette, texture palette, and logo design would come into play.
