Museum Sans (HEX Projects), paired with the more utilitarian Beatrice (Sharp Type). Smaller all caps accents use Stellar (Pangram Pangram). From Moth:
The MassArt Art Museum (MAAM) is a place to imagine the unimagined—to see what you haven’t seen before. MAAM is Boston’s newest museum, a place where visitors experience works by visionary artists at the forefront of contemporary art.
MAAM sought a bold brand that breaks the mold of the stark black-and-white motifs at other contemporary art institutions. During a visual workshop, the MAAM team reached consensus on what they desired in a logotype: “No serif, no sans serif.” No problem, right? We delivered with a logomark that has custom letter forms that are moving forward in space. And we partnered with Nick Sherman to craft a bespoke font that is used as the display face in the system.
MAAM is a kunsthalle—a non-collecting museum that is always changing, never static. The brand identity reflects the element of surprise and unexpectedness. It’s modular, flexible, and extends to exhibition branding and sub-brands.
One of the core values of MAAM is that it’s always free and open to the public. We embraced this tenet of inclusivity with an identity that is vibrant, welcoming, and engages a broader audience in the discussion of public art.
2 Comments on “MassArt Art Museum identity”
Museum Sans look similar to Filmotype Zingo
It’s not entirely different, but I wouldn’t call it similar. What you’re observing is called “translational contrast”: the thick and thin parts are distributed around a diagonal axis (it’s nicely visible in the letter o), as if written with a broad-nib pen held at an angle. If you want to learn more about this topic, I recommend Gerrit Noordzij’s The Stroke.
While this aspect is indeed common between Museum Sans and Zingo (and many other typefaces), it’s also where the similarities end.
Zingo is flowing, with quick strokes and “upticks” at the baseline, suggesting an informal hand. Museum Sans, in contrast, is drawn very accurately, almost in a constructional way. It’s more akin to designs that evolved from Rudolf Koch’s school, like Stahl and Lydian – but with a contemporary twist, and with the contrast amount taken to an extreme.
Another aspect is proportions: According to its designer, Museum Sans “channels proportions from inscriptional lettering”. This shows in the wide forms for letters like O and the W with crossed diagonals, contrasted with narrow ones for S. Zingo is quite different in this regard: it’s overall condensed, and its caps don’t follow classical proportions.