Museum of modern art

BMD designed environmental graphics and wayfinding systems for The Museum of Modern Art’s large-scale expansion, which was completed in November 2004.

The new building, designed by Taniguchi & Associates (Tokyo) and Kohn Pederson and Fox (New York City) includes larger, more flexible galleries for contemporary art, architecturally distinctive galleries for masterpieces of modern art, a centre devoted to research and educational endeavors and the restoration of a number of the Museum’s noteworthy architectural features.

The museum’s strong, historically modern graphic identity was to remain intact. The challenge for BMD was to realign and restore the integrity of that original identity, and give it a consistent voice across varying substrates – books, brochures, environmental graphics – while injecting a revitalized energy in keeping with the museum’s new architecture and programming.

BMD’s approach to the environmental graphics was discreet and tactful, designed to integrate with the building’s architecture. Taking material cues from the building itself, BMD developed methods for embedding polished stainless steel letters into the galleries' plaster walls. In keeping with the studio’s general philosophy that signage should minimize visual noise, BMD’s graphic plan looked to the inherent colour of the signage material, rather than the application of colour, to provide needed contrast. Referred to as “black and white and shades of grey,” BMD’s approach relied on the calibration of contrasts to provide meaningful wayfinding throughout the gallery.