Responses by Laura Stein, design partner and chief creative officer, Bruce Mau Design.
Background: We were asked to create a new brand identity and website that would reposition the McMichael Canadian Art Collection as a dynamic cultural space. Founded in 1952, the McMichael and the gallery became synonymous with early Canadian art icons in their collection such as the Group of Seven, Emily Carr and Tom Thomson. Today, it is a vibrant, evolving institution, home to the art of Canada in all its variety. However, despite this development, public perception remains rooted in the past.
Design thinking: One of the brand’s key difficulties was visibility. To counter this, we designed a consistent style for exhibition campaigns and created a more declarative logomark that dramatically scales to anchor the art and the information. The artwork is at the top of the hierarchy and the logo is second, so there is no mistaking that this is a McMichael exhibition. The flat planes of color are eye-catching. The result is a vibrant, muscular system that signals the McMichael’s relevance and leadership while also increasing recognition.
Challenges: It was important to marry the past, present and future, as the McMichael is about to undergo a renovation. We want to express the character of the place—built from the original collectors’ cabin and on 100 acres of woodland—while also signaling the breadth of contemporary and relevant exhibitions and programming, We redrew a 50-year old logo from the archive, retaining its hand-crafted sensibility, and paired it with a contemporary sans serif and rigorous grid.
Favorite details: Creating a flexible color system that enables the McMichael to advertise its campaigns in a fresh way each time but retains its style. The logo is consistently used in the same way—scaled extra large, edge to edge. The type and grid are also consistent, but the color pulls from the artwork. We identify a “minor” color from the work and push that into a plane where all the information sits. The color, complementing or contrasting with the artwork, becomes a big draw and identifier. Once we are in the gallery, the style can change, but the color becomes the throughline.
New lessons: I relearned the importance of diving into archives to guide the way forward. We can either push against the past or pull it forward and both are viable options depending on what we want to do with the brand. However, knowing what that past looks like is critical.
We also learned so much about Canadian art. We saw every exhibit and went to every opening. I feel like my appreciation for the art of Canada has increased one thousand fold.
Visual influences: We were inspired by the old logo from the 1960s by Peter Dorn, a muscular serif with a tall x-height and tightly kerned, connected letterforms. We wanted to redraw the mark with an emphasis on contemporary usage. “McM” provided us with a strong enough character that we were able to use it as a short form across the visuals.
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