On Philadelphia’s famed Benjamin Franklin Expressway, the place stone, symmetry and civic ambition meet, one thing delicate but seismic has came about.
The town’s grandest temple to artwork has shed a preposition.
After just about a century because the Philadelphia Museum of Artwork, or PMA, the establishment now calls itself merely the Philadelphia Artwork Museum – or PhAM, as the brand new brand and public rollout invite us to mention.
The exchange might appear beauty, however as a advertising pupil at Temple College whose analysis makes a speciality of branding and virtual business plan, I do know that within the tight geometry of naming and branding, each and every phrase issues.
The museum’s new id alerts now not only a typographic replace however a change in tone, objective and succeed in. It’s as though the museum has taken an extended, deep breath … and determined to loosen its collar.
Insta-friendly design
For many years, the museum’s granite facade has represented permanence. Its pediments topped with griffins – mythological creatures which are section lion and section eagle – have appeared out around the limited-access highway like silent sentinels of tradition. The rebrand dares to make the ones sentinels dance.
In its new shape, PhAM is intentionally extra versatile, much less marble, extra movement. The brand revives the griffin however puts it with a daring, round brand this is unmistakably virtual. The brand new brand is chunkier, extra assertive and designed to carry its personal on a telephone display screen.
Just like the 2015 Metropolitan Museum of Artwork’s virtual overhaul in New York, the Philadelphia Artwork Museum is leaning into an generation the place guests first come upon tradition thru monitors, now not doorways. Because the Met’s former leader virtual officer Sree Sreenivasan said, “Our competition is Netflix and Candy Crush,” now not different museums.
The PhAM’s visible language is redesigned for environments full of scrolling, swiping and sharing. Thru this marketer’s lens, the function is apparent: to make certain that the museum lives now not best at the limited-access highway however within the set of rules.
The museum’s new branding and signage targets to enchantment to more youthful and extra numerous audiences.
Rob Cusick/Philadelphia Artwork Museum
Just a little more youthful, extra cheeky
There’s something refreshing a couple of legacy establishment keen to fulfill its present or long term target market the place they already are. The museum’s management frames the exchange as a broader renewal – a dedication to accessibility, neighborhood and openness.
The rebrand showcases “Philadelphia” and it takes middle level within the new title and brand, a delicate however potent reminder that the museum’s roots are right here. Within the earlier design, the phrase “Art” was once a lot better and extra bolded than “Philadelphia.”
After which there’s the nickname: PhAM. It’s playful – suppose, “Hey, fam!” or a Batman comic-style Pow! Bam! PhAM! – compact, simple to mention and simply cheeky sufficient to intrigue a brand new technology. It’s Instagrammable and hashtaggable. It’s were given trending energy. I requested a lecture corridor filled with advertising scholars of their 20s what they considered it, they usually most often liked it. They idea it was once “fun,” “hip” and had sufficient “play” within the title to lead them to wish to discuss with.
It’s additionally a nod to the way in which other people from Philly if truth be told communicate concerning the position. No person in Philadelphia ever says, “Let’s go to the Museum of Art.” They name it “the Art Museum.” The logo in any case stuck up with the vernacular.
A balancing act
Rebrands within the cultural sector are hardly easy makeovers. They’re id reckonings.
The Tate Trendy in London mastered this dance in 2016 when it modernized its graphics and virtual outreach whilst retaining the burden of its bones intact.
Others have stumbled.
When the Whitney Museum in New York debuted a minimalist “W” in 2013, reactions have been combined. To me, it felt extra like a tech startup than a spot of artwork.
PhAM now faces that very same paradox. How does the cultural establishment seem fashionable with out erasing its majesty? Museums, finally, industry in authority up to accessibility.
The brand new title carries delicate dangers. Some longtime buyers might bristle on the informal tone. And the word “Museum of Art” carries an educational formality that “Art Museum” softens.
And the extra versatile a emblem’s brand or voice turns into, the extra it dangers dissolving into the noise of virtual sameness. Whilst manufacturers should adapt their visuals and tone to suit other social media platforms and audiences, there’s a advantageous line between flexibility and dilution. The extra a emblem’s brand, voice or visible id bends to house each and every virtual pattern or platform aesthetic, the larger the danger that it loses its edge.
For instance, when too many manufacturers undertake a minimalistic sans-serif brand – as we’ve observed with style manufacturers reminiscent of Burberry and Saint Laurent – the result’s a uniform aesthetic that makes it tough for any unmarried id to face out.
Flexibility will have to serve differentiation, now not erode it.
Finally, I recognize how PhAM’s revival of the griffin, steeped within the construction’s historical past, helps to keep the logo tethered to its architectural DNA.
For now, the rebrand communicates each humility and self belief. It recognizes that even icons should discover ways to talk new languages. The gesture isn’t simply aesthetic; it’s generational. By way of softening its posture and modernizing its voice, the Philadelphia Artwork Museum seems intent on relationship a brand new cohort of museumgoers used to tales unfolding on monitors. This can be a rebrand now not simply for the devoted however for individuals who may by no means have considered the museum as “for them” within the first position.
Philadelphia Artwork Museum’s new branding on show on N. fifth Side road in North Philadelphia.
Sheri Lambert, CC BY-NC-SA
