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Moore College of Art and Design
By : Entro
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 16th edition
Discipline : Communication & Branding
Categories : Environmental Design / Signage : Silver Certification
Brief/Challenge
Founded in 1848, Moore College of Art & Design was the first visual arts college for women in the US and continues to educate artists and designers to build creative, enterprising careers of significant impact. Moore recently underwent a rebrand, resulting in a new logo supported by vibrant color palettes, fonts and graphic elements. The rebrand corresponded with the 5-year milestone of Moore’s Master Plan, which seeks to remain competitive in the art school landscape by reimagining course offerings and by improving the physical environment for students. Our goal was to develop an experience for campus spaces that delivered on the new brand in its expression of creativity, vitality and a modern aesthetic. We also wanted to create a distinctive sense of place – to unify what was once a disparate experience for students – while differentiating between departments and disciplines located throughout the campus. While only limited areas of the campus interior were renovated, the design solutions prioritized student and faculty input gained through interactive workshops in order to reflect the new brand expression and culture of the institution.
Approach
In developing the program, we knew we needed to design for designers – to activate the creative center of the school and demonstrate the power of experiential design. Overlapping fields of color drive this design program. They are derived from the overlapping circles that form the “O”s of the new Moore logo and signify the idea of merging disciplines and being ‘better together.’ This theme provided us with an opportunity to play with a variety of merging colors and circles while simultaneously unifying the program with common elements of the Moore identity, often through unexpected applications.
Color is used to differentiate between floors and their corresponding disciplines; each floor is assigned its own color palette chosen from the robust family of secondary and tertiary colors prescribed by the school’s new rebrand. For a vertical campus such as this one, we applied the program to elevator lobbies, which function as key circulation hubs, to create a sense of arrival and to facilitate intuitive wayfinding. Graphic patterns featuring circles and merging fields of color are extended over doors and other surfaces to further the immersive and playful effect. Big, bold typography identifies each floor’s discipline using a variation of the assigned color palette.
Wayfinding directional signage adopts a consistent color – midnight blue – for easy recognition and optimal contrast of primary information. Doors to restrooms and other amenities are also painted midnight blue, which helps them stand out in long corridors. Wayfinding signage incorporates a variation of the circle motif, this time as a distinctive perforated pattern punched out of the sign. The perforations play on positive and negative space as the floor color peeks through the signage from the wall beneath. The custom symbol set developed for the system continues this play between positive and negative space by incorporating overlapping tints within the circular graphic elements of each symbol.
Results
Students and faculty are excited! This project demonstrates the power of experiential graphic design to bring a vibrant new identity to life and revitalize existing campus spaces, without the need for costly renovations.
Collaboration
