I started off by looking at a range of existing museums and galleries websites. The reason I chose to look at their websites was because it gave me an insight into their web deisgns, the content of their websites but it will also allow me to see their cafes and restaurants, what and how they exibit their information, their shop, and also their interiors and exteriors.
The design museum logo is extremely simple. Completely text based it is easily recognisable and distinctive, however it isn't very interesting or individual. By only using text is avoids the danger of looking too corporate and the logo type is very appropriate for the type of museum it is.
For my design, I will experiment with just a type based logo as I do believe they are very effective, they are just not as adventurous or as challenging to produce.
The exterior of the design museum is very appropriate to the content and is a modernist simplistic design. This is a similar style of building to that which I want to house my museum and gallery. The clean while walls allow for the application of designs to promote exhibitions and talks, something that I want to have on my building. There are some feature of this building that I do not like. These elements are the protruding brick section at the top as well as the thick small square panes of glass as I do not think they will fit with my aesthetic and I think the look dated.
I really enjoy the interior design for the cafe as it is interesting, different but not overwhelming. The clean white walls and grey floor provides a very clean look. The addition of the colour and illustration removes any sterility that could have been felt had the walls remained white. The furniture and wall design reflects the museums modernist look and feel and create a welcoming place to eat and drink.
I really like the idea of white walls with a grey concrete of marble floor and this is something that I want my museum, gallery, cafe and shop to have. I also think it is important to include some colour as, like I previously said, it removes any possible sterility.
The website uses the 2 colours associated with the museum - pink and green - as well as black for the body copy.
The museum website isn't completely conventional, however, it is not really unconventional either. Due to my screen size and the fact that the website is not 100 percent responsive means that all the information arranges weirdly on my page.
The large cover band at the top is useful as it shows you current exhibitions so you can navigate to them with ease, however, the rest of the layout and navigation is not very good in my opinion. All of the links are really bunched up and squeezed in between the cover bar and the information below and this makes them difficult to use. In fact the whole website and its content is really close together and I think it would look and function much better if it was spread out more.
Once you have started clicking the links and moving through the pages the navigation does not get any better. When you click on the exhibition page a lot changes. the banner at the top changes, something which isn't unusual, however, the logo moves and more links appear where it originally was. This causes an issue as it may confuse some users. As a commonality the logo will always link back to the homepage and good websites work well because their navigation stays the same. By changing the navigation on each page it makes the website harder to navigate.
Again the logo has moved to a different place and the advertising strip for the shop down the right-hand side has disappeared and been replaced by different links. This' like previously state makes the website harder to use.
The resource page then changes completely. I personally think this page is more conventional and aesthetically pleasing. Although I am not usually the one to agree conventional looks best, with web design I think a structure and consistency is very important. Although this page balances better than the others it isn't perfect. The arrangement of the information as one continuous column does not make it work aesthetically within the space as you have to scroll extensively to find information.
The pages just look and feel boring and I would have expected something more interesting from a design museum.
The shop is probably the best laid out page to do with the design museum. The only problem with this page is that it is a completely different website and I could not find a link from the main site to this one. The clean and distinct grid structure is something I want to carry forward into my design.
The Tate logo, like the design museum is typographic, however, this logo has more than just the plain typographic element that the Design Museum has. This logo has a varied blur which turns the type into image although I do not think this is very effective as a logo. The reason I do not think it is an effective logo is it becomes lost when it is used.
The Tate website is much easier to navigate when compared to the Design Museum website. The navigation and links are clear and easy to use.
Although the website layout does change slightly on a few of the pages the layouts are more closely laid out than those of the Design Museum.
Overall I do not think either of these websites are that well designed at all, especially considering the content and purpose of these designs. They are to a degree functional, however are not the easiest to navigate and have changing layouts.
As for the building both internally and externally, the Tate Modern is vast and industrial based in the former Bankside Power Station. The gallery spaces have some of the qualities I am looking for, such as the white walls and the concrete floors, however, the Tate has a far too industrial feel that I do not want in my museum and gallery.
The Baltic again is purely typographic, however, this logo has more presence. It is not as logo like as the Tate logo and it is not as pure type as the Design Museum but functions better than both. The logo is identifiable and even when just a 'B.' is used it is obvious that it is associated with the Baltic.
The website is also must easier to navigate than the previous two that I have looked at. The navigation for this website is constant through all of the pages, making it very easy to navigate through. All of the websites that I have looked at have so much content that they require a large number of pages. This is another reason that they are hard to navigate as you have to go through many links and pages to get to the information you require. In my website I want it to be very easy to access and find information.
The building itself has some feature that I like - the ones seen in many contemporary galleries and museums - white walls and concrete floors. The Baltic also has and interesting cafe and restaurant space that is has qualities I want the Type Factory to have. The cafe and bar are situated in the newer part of the building spread over two floors with a great view of the River Tyne and surrounding bridges and quayside. The restaurant is located on the top floor of the gallery building with even better views out across Newcastle from its viewing box and terrace. I really like the idea of having a rooftop bar/restaurant and this is something I will consider when thinking and proposing my Type Factory.
Again this logo is very typographic but unlike all the previous ones I have looked at this it feels more like a logo. This is probably due to the design where the start of the ampersand acts as the horizontal stroke or crossbar for the 'A'. This integration of characters to make a logo is something that I think is very effective and something will experiment with when creating my logo.
The website on the whole is easier to navigate, however, the layout does vary slightly depending on the content. From researching and looking into the website design for similar museums and galleries I have come to the conclusion that due to the amount of content and the variation of the content, it is impossible to use the same layout throughout. I have. however, decided that it is possible to keep the navigation in the same place so that it is easy to navigate.
I think it is also possible to make the navigation easier and simpler to use and to design the website so that it is not as cramped an overcrowded.
The initial shop pages vary quite a lot in the websites but the actual shop page itself is commonly made up of a strict grid system displaying all of the products. This is an effective way of displaying the information as it gives you all the required information quickly and if you want more you can select the item.
The interior and exterior of the V&A are very traditional and not something I want to take forward for my museum and gallery. I want a very spacious and modern feel and appearance, something I don't believe you get with the aesthetic, design and architecture seen in the V&A.
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