Description

New brand positioning, platform, and visual identity for the Pushkin Museum.

Despite its global recognition, the Pushkin Museum was in need of a brand platform and a contemporary visual identity. There were several reasons for this: over its more than 100-year history, the museum had grown from a single building into an entire complex with a network of branches; its positioning had never been clearly defined; and its outdated corporate style no longer reflected the scale and significance of the institution.

The mission of the Pushkin Museum is to reveal and narrate the interconnectedness of history, culture, and ideas through the language of art. The museum’s core purpose is to become a place that allows one to look beyond the horizon. The new concept is to help people see, feel, and understand beauty, art, and themselves. The positioning — “A museum that teaches you to look beyond the horizon” — defines the institution as a brand that, while rooted in tradition and conservatism, moves in step with the times.

The logo is a monogram composed of the capital letters of the museum’s name. Its vertical lines symbolize the columns of the entrance façade, while the diagonal ones create linear perspective, forming an airy space within the mark. The logo employs a confident, weighty typeface that underscores the monumentality of the building. The composition as a whole is balanced by a new-style serif with triangular terminals and a restrained neo-grotesque.

The visual identity thrives on refined layouts, where the symbol can be freely positioned across the design. Yet one principle remains constant: the mark always appears beneath the lettering, echoing the architectural composition of the museum’s entrance, where its full name is placed above the columns.

The outlines of columns, rendered as colored blocks, are echoed across banners, business cards, notebooks, and other materials. This idea is further developed in the horizontal slider on the museum’s website.

Credits

Vladimir Lifanov, Creative Director
Leonid Spiridonov, Strategy Director
Irina Sakharova, Art Director
Tatyana Sokolova, Designer
Evgeniy Nikitin, Motion Graphics Designer
Anna Semyonova, Brand Producer
Sergey Lyakhovich, Brand Producer
Olga Dergulyova, New Business Producer
Ekaterina Kuklina, Account Director