Scope: Brand, Art Direction, UX/UI
Children's Museum of Indianapolis
Founded in 1924, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis is the largest children's museum in the world, both in terms of physical size and number of artifacts. CMI entertains an international audience (with a 1.27 million annual attendance) through their wide variety of subjects including, but not limited to, American pop culture, space travel, world history, and dinosaurs. With a little bit of everything, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis remains engaging for all ages.
After a 2010 rebrand, the museum's identity moved away from its more colorful, playful look, and received a lot of negative feedback that criticized its "corporate" feel.
"[The new branding] is in no way a representation of what the museum offers to children and adults; the exhibits are educational, fun, and so much more engaging than the logo."
Being such an internationally renowned museum, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis should look the part of a respectable establishment while still reflecting the youthful spirit, curiosity, and play of it's audience.
Identity
The logo mark is evocative of the whimsical nature of youth: a little sporadic, bright colors, simple shapes, cut paper and misaligned elements— carefree entropy.
The mark, in its combined geometric nature, also lends to dynamic, variable iterations.
Variable Identity
Color
The color palette, paired with the simple geometric shapes, gives a sense of an elementary educational environment, reflective of the Children's Museum of Indianapolis's mission of hands-on interactive learning.
Type
Montserrat was chosen for its geometric simplicity that relates back to the basic shapes in the logo mark. Additionally, the uniform line quality reflects the layering of outlined forms with the flat colored shapes.
Icon System/Wayfinding
With 12 major interactive galleries (plus temporary seasonal exhibits) spanning the museum's 5 stories and additional outside campus space, an icon system is an easily identifiable abbreviation for the multitude of activities offered. The system is useful for spaces where the lengthy exhibit names would become burdensome, as well as aiding the not-yet-literate attendees.
A few of the icons for the many museum exhibits.
Top row: Beyond Spaceship Earth, Circus! Staring You, Lilly Theater, Dinosphere
Second row: Treasures of the Earth, ScienceWorks, Dance! It's Your Stage, American POP!
Mobile App
As the largest children's museum in the world, navigating the abundance of separate exhibits, each with different presentations, shows, and events every hour, can seem a daunting task. Having an app to supplement the museum-going experience helps alleviate some of the stressors of planning a day trip.
The app features a feed of the day's activities, an option for a customizable personal schedule, an interactive map of all 5 floors, and bonus geolocation-based photo filters to add flare to the experience, with an option to share the fun with friends and family.
User flow
App in use
Website
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