The State Darwin Museum is one of Russia’s most famous museums, welcoming around 600,000 visitors every year. With a rich history going back over a hundred years, the museum aims to balance both tradition and modernity. However, observing tradition means, among other things, that the museum’s brand identity has seen few changes throughout the years.
As a result, at one point it became clear that the museum would benefit from a rebranding to fit more organically into today’s dynamic digital and physical world. On the one hand, the overall visual identity had to be updated, but not reinvented. Over the years, it had become quite recognizable and thus closely associated with the Darwin Museum. On the other hand, the visual identity had to have its range of applicability expanded to a whole array of new media: the revamped website, social media, posters, and merch. In a manner of speaking, we had to modernize the branding inside out but leave its core intact.
The Darwin Museum’s trademark logo is an ammonite-like spiral, a nod to the fascinating ancient mollusk. For continuity’s sake, the image had to be preserved; for modernity’s sake, simplified. This combination of principles, born at the onset of the project, set the tone for the rest of the brand design. Just like the spiral in the logo, the idea behind the branding gathered momentum and unraveled into something concrete yet captivating.
For permanent exhibitions, there is a basic, all-purpose white ticket with the signature spiral. For temporary exhibitions, there is a special variation of the basic template. Its half-circular image echoes the original spiral, only instead it features a relevant picture functioning as a teaser or a preview. This template is highly versatile and reusable thanks to its minimalism, which makes it possible to design unique tickets for each particular exhibition.
The same theme carries over into posters. The design of a poster matches the design of the corresponding ticket, making it easier to navigate through the vast, exhibition-rich space of the Darwin Museum. Besides, the poster also clearly indicates the exhibition's permanent or temporary status.
Сlean, airy layouts with a minimalist design and a single visual highlight ensure easier perception of the museum’s essence with no distractions. In other words, what is actually highlighted here is the museum itself with its history, continuity, and uniqueness.
The black version of the same layout is reserved for the interactive educational center. This austere, exquisite color perfectly matches the sophisticated educational environment into which the posters invite the visitors. As always, the idea was to employ posters not just as sources of information, but also as a means of navigation, and these instantly identifiable, uniquely designed signposts are certain to do the trick.
Designer: Faina Stoliarova — branding elements, 3D, and motion design
Lead project manager: Zoya Kiryushina
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