Museum of Confluences – Graphic guidelines

12 September 2021 | 0 Comments | |

branding museum

While putting away our work files, we came across one of our biggest regrets. It was a project for a graphic charter for the Musée des Confluences in Lyon that was not selected. We tell you at the end of the article the "why" of this particular regret. We are still biting our fingers.

How to re-enchant a graphic charter?

In this call for tenders, we had to reinvent and reenchant the museum's graphic charter. Our ambition was to bring boldness and innovation, freshness and youthfulness. The challenge was also to imagine it in motion and in a responsive way to meet the digital challenges.

This museum is located at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône rivers. The logotype was designed by Ruedi Baur and his teams about ten years ago. The initial graphic principle is based on a meeting and superimposition of two images whose intersection reveals two shapes pointing towards each other. It is a promise of meeting, of crossing, an invitation to see the world from another angle, to finally take the height. Our proposal is in line with this concept.

charte graphique musée des Confluences

Visual concept

Our project is organized around three axes, namely the original principle of the encounter, but also two new ideas, radiation and revelation.

The notion of encounter is illustrated by two triangles whose vertices attract each other and meet at a single point. When they meet, the two triangles become one shape, a spectrum of light whose beams illuminate the cultures of our world. This is

Our project is organized around three axes, namely the original principle of the encounter, but also two new ideas, radiation and revelation.

The notion of encounter is illustrated by two triangles whose vertices attract each other and meet at a single point. When they meet, the two triangles become one shape, a spectrum of light whose beams illuminate the cultures of our world. This is radiation. Finally, for the idea of revelation, we have imagined the principle of a curtain or veil rising, allowing a glimpse of an opening onto the world that amplifies our field of vision without limit.

Motion design

It is the movement that allows us to play with the notions of radiation and revelation. The rays seem to open up like in the eye of a photographic lens. This very simple movement catches the eye and invites curiosity.

The typography is highlighted, while remaining faithful to the graphic charter and particularly to the notion of meeting. It works as a title or a texture to dress the visuals. It slides and appears with fluidity.

Graphic univers

Based on these new rules of the game where colors and typographies can be combined to infinity, we can imagine a plethora of variations, while maintaining a coherent whole.

The global view allows to visualize a form of continuity from one support to another. The text of a poster seems to continue on another.

affiches musée design

poster design

poster branding design culture

Regrets in the form of a lesson!

But then what were those particular regrets? Obviously, we could have been disappointed that our project was not selected. However, over the past 20 years, we have become accustomed to our projects not being unanimously approved, or sometimes being off the mark.

In this particular case, our project was not even seen by the client. Yet we had been selected to participate in the consultation and were promised compensation. We had invested the subject for several weeks, and the last day, tirelessly satisfied, we exported an umpteenth version of the file to submit it on the public procurement platform. But the file finished uploading at 12:01. The deadline was 12:00.

This delay of one minute was prohibitive. We were automatically eliminated. There was nothing left but self-flagellation to prevent this from happening again.

Since then we've written a series of articles and podcasts about the charrette and the place of "time" in creative processes. A way to understand why designers always turn in their projects at the last minute. :-)