Stedelijk Museum on the hunt for new house style

Not only will the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam have a new home in the not too distant future but soon, a new house style to be decided by an international competition.

By Editor Design.nl / 27-11-2008

New Museum, New Identity.

The Stedelijk Museum has launched an international competition to design a new house style for the museum. Five renowned graphic design studios are in contention: Irma Boom Office, LUST and Mevis & Van Deursen in the Netherlands and Pierre di Sciullo and Atelier de Création Graphique (headed by Pierre Bernard) in France. The winner is to be announced on Thursday 8 January 2009.

In the lead-up to the contest, sixteen design studios were selected from which five candidates were shortlisted. An important selection criterion was the ability of the studio to produce a hybrid style. The idea of asking candidates to devise a system of different fonts derives from the work of Willem Sandberg (Director of the Stedelijk Museum 1945-1962). His work shows that diversity or multiplicity can produce a consistent museum house style.

An important feature of the competition brief is the emphasis on a relationship with the past and in particular with the period when the museum’s graphic identity was determined by Sandberg. A visual dossier on the history of the Stedelijk Museum’s corporate house style has been compiled and a market analysis had been performed, taking account of the positioning of the museum. The working party has also produced an inventory of items for which the house style will be used (from business cards to signage). In collaboration with architects Benthem Crouwel, responsible for the new museum building, possible relationships with the museum’s architecture have also been considered. Finally, the graphic possibilities for the restaurant have been estimated with the help of Gilian Schrofer of Concern, the studio responsible for the design of the museum’s new refreshment areas. The completion of the refurbushed Stedelijk Museum is estimated to be in December 2009.

The jury incorporates wide-ranging expertise in the fields of graphic design, museum management, branding and marketing, architecture and journalism. The members of the jury will be: Paul Hefting (writer on graphic design), Hendrik Driessen (director of the De Pont Museum, Tilburg), Dingeman Kuilman (director of Premsela, Dutch Platform for Design and Fashion), Petra Blaisse (initiator of design studio Inside Outside) and Hester Wolters (former editor of Vormberichten, the journal of the Association of Dutch Designers). Lex Reitsma is recording the entire process in a documentary to be issued in 2009.

Image: Current logo designed by Wim Crouwel