Moore College of Art and Design

Founded in 1848, Moore College of Art & Design is the first all-women’s college for art and design in the U.S., and continues to educate artists and designers to build creative, enterprising, and impactful careers. Moore recently underwent a rebrand, in partnership with Creative Communications Associates, resulting in a new logo supported by vibrant color palettes, fonts and graphic elements.

Agency

Practice Area

Client

Moore College of Art & Design

Industry

The Challenge

The rebrand corresponded with the 5-year milestone of Moore’s Master Plan, which also sought to remain competitive in the art school landscape by reimagining course offerings and by improving the physical environment for students.

Our goal was to develop an experience for campus spaces that delivered on the new brand in its expression of creativity, vitality and a modern aesthetic. We also wanted to create a distinctive sense of place – to unify what was once a disparate experience for students – while differentiating between departments and disciplines located throughout the campus.

Project Vision

In developing the program, we knew we needed to design for designers – to activate the creative center of the school and demonstrate the power of experiential design. Our process included interactive workshops with students and faculty to understand the unique wayfinding challenges and determine a creative brief for the design solutions. This effort also served as an introduction for students to understand the field of experiential design, including a class assignment that continues to this day to engage students in developing large scale murals for the exterior facade.

Each floor is assigned its own color palette chosen from the brand’s secondary and tertiary colors. To sustain engagement, graphics are uniquely connected vertically from one floor to another.

Image courtesy of Moore College

The entrance level most directly celebrates the brand. Overlapping fields of color, derived from the overlapping circles that form the “O”s of the new logo, drive this design program.

Kat Kendon

The brand’s intent of transparency and overlapping forms is realized through perforated sign panels and layered graphics. Unexpected color combinations give each floor a sense of identity.

Kat Kendon

Design + Execution

Overlapping fields of color drive this design program. They are derived from the overlapping circles that form the “O”s of the new Moore logo and signify the idea of merging disciplines and being ‘better together.’ This theme provided us with an opportunity to play with a variety of merging colors and circles while simultaneously unifying the program with common elements of the Moore identity, often through unexpected applications.

Bold, energizing super graphics that build on the brand typography, shapes, and colors populate the environment, to enliven the space and make students feel welcome. Color is used to differentiate between floors and their corresponding disciplines; each floor is assigned its own color palette chosen from the robust family of secondary and tertiary colors prescribed by the school’s new rebrand. For a vertical campus such as this one, we applied the program to elevator lobbies, which function as key circulation hubs, to create a sense of arrival and to facilitate intuitive wayfinding. 

Wayfinding directional signage adopts a consistent color – midnight blue – for easy recognition and optimal contrast of primary information. Doors to restrooms and other amenities

are also painted midnight blue, which helps them stand out in long corridors. Wayfinding signage incorporates a variation of the circle motif, this time as a distinctive perforated pattern punched out of the sign. The perforations play on positive and negative space as the floor color peeks through the signage from the wall beneath.

The connected Sarah Peter Hall and Wilson Hall buildings carry through the same per level color
palette. The graphics that extend vertically across levels are unique to each building.

Kat Kendon

Custom brand-inspired pictograms were developed for the sign program. Given architectural limitations, all gender restrooms were not achievable. Wayfinding and amenity signage are a consistent color for easy recognition.

Image courtesy of Moore College / award applicant

The previous campus experience did not embody the energy and spirit of Moore’s culture. Without architectural interventions, the bold new graphics bring to life the essence of the community.

Kat Kendon

Dramatic letters that wrap the pre-existing message band, a bold application of color, large-scale tagline, and the new branding bring new life to the exterior.

Kat Kendon

Project Details
Design Team

Entro

Photo Credits

Kat Kendon, Moore College

Open Date

September 12, 2022