Barcelona Cultura

The origin of the Museum’s visual identity

It was in November 2013 that the project to define the visual identity of the Barcelona Museu del Disseny and the Design Hub was launched. It was a challenge set for the winners of the competition, the Atlas company, which had also worked for the Reina Sofía Museum and companies such as Camper. But what was the inspiration for the new image that the museum would premiere in 2014?

At a glance, you can identify two of the main ideas used in the project: simplicity and the diagonal line; two elements that will surely transport you directly to the Plaça de les Glòries, which in recent years has become a new cultural and leisure centre for the city of Barcelona. At that time, it was both "modern and risky", according to Astrid Stavro and Pablo Martín, founders of Atlas.

The play of lines takes on another symbolic aspect of the project: the link between the various institutions housed in the building beyond the Design Hub and the Museum, such as Fostering Arts and Design (FAD), the Documentation Centre or the Barcelona Design Centre (BCD), with whom we share spaces and projects.

Finally, one last aspect that you might have identified when visiting the museum: the flexibility and adaptation of the visual identity to the museum's architecture. The access stairs, exhibitions and museography, and even the catalogues and merchandising, everything flows through the diagonal line combined with the Graphika typeface.

Ajuntament de Barcelona