Creating a holistic visitor experience

Design Museum Helsinki

Creating a holistic visitor experience

BOND did a multi-year brand development project for the Design Museum Helsinki. The goal behind the rebranding project was to improve the visitor experience on all levels. The first step was to strengthen the museum’s identity and create a brand that stands the test of time.

The gradually designed project covered everything from exhibition design and museum premises to marketing and web design. We created an integrated holistic experience by combining spatial, physical and digital design together to extend the museum visit beyond the physical building.

In just two years the number of museum visitors as well as the ticket sales almost doubled.

More Info

client:

Design Museum Helsinki

website:

designmuseum.fi

contributions:

Brand Strategy

Brand identity

Experience design

UI design

Digital development

Spatial design

Art direction

Campaign design

awards:

Best of Finnish Advertising and Design, Silver Award, 2015

ADCE Awards, Nomination Winner, 2015

Rebrand 100 Global Award, Distinction, 2016

industry:

Museum

Inspired by the golden age of Finnish design.

We created a strong visual style for the museum. Almost half of the museum's visitors come from outside Finland, which led us to seek inspiration from the golden age of Finnish design. Sharp edges and circular geometric shapes used together with a subtle color scheme. Design and typography are heavily influenced by classic Finnish designers such as Alvar Aalto. All the elements leverage a repeated modular style inherited from the golden age of Finnish design and architecture. A sharp-eyed viewer can even spot the basis of the Artek Aalto stool in the logo.

A consistent, integrated brand identity.

These basic forms are also used in the identity in various ways. The new visual style is holistic; it affects more than just printed and digital materials. Elements of the identity are used in the museum's exterior and interior.

Narrated path through the museum.

The visitor experience is enhanced by clear spatial design, guiding people through the museum's exhibition spaces, as well as through on screen, search-friendly content that complements the exhibit. This, in turn, heightens personal relevance, ensuring that items within the collection are more discoverable, shareable and engaging, while enhancing the visitor's ability to provide feedback and join the debate.

Exit through the gift shop.

The gift shop and café also got a complete facelift. The new facilities enable better product presentation. We also had emphasis on the comfort of the space, after all it is not only a store but a café as well.

Omnichannel Customer Journey.

Our omnichannel approach was to provide museum information when needed, where needed and in a consistent way. The web design follows the same concept and strong visual style as the museum itself. This helps to make the customer experience a continuum rather than sum of its parts.

Focus on pre and post visit experience.

As a part of the holistic museum experience, we wanted to support the museum visit with a Digital Collection. By doing this, the digital experience starts before and continues after the visit. The Design Museum's Digital Collection makes it possible to exhibit the full collection of an exhibition and makes it possible for visitors to see pieces that are not physically displayed in the museum space. The digital collection also allows the museum to create digital archives of temporary exhibitions.

design museum utopia now experience design by BOND

Additional dimension.

The digital collection adds an additional dimension to the museum experience as the museum can engage the visitors with more content. Visitors can browse the archive at their leisure within the museum or at home. The digital collection has been branded according to the Design Museum's own identity. The digital collection works in smart phone, tablet, desktop and museum mode.

Bringing the collection alive.

The permanent exhibition, "Utopia Now: The Story of Finnish Design", highlights the importance of visitor engagement, both inside and outside the museum, through digital engagement. For the first time ever, over 350 years of history is collated in a digital exhibition, focusing on professionalism in the design field in both Finland and abroad. The information is projected as a timeline over three walls within the museum and showcases materials that have never before been accessible to the public in one place, since the museum's opening in 1873.

The art of tease.

To support the overall museum experience, we designed matching marketing campaigns and visual identities for various different exhibitions. On top of the permanent Utopia Now exhibition, we did temporary exhibition identities for Eero Aarnio, Henrik Vibskov, Ilmari Tapiovaara and Fiskars. The campaigns included both digital and traditional advertising in the forms of online, print and outdoor promoting.