Bath’s American Museum in Britain has been renamed the American Museum & Gardens and given a new brand identity by city-based design agency Touchpoint in moves aimed at attracting a wider audience.
The new garden is the first stage of an ambitious plan to boost visitor numbers to the 57-year-old museum at Claverton on the outskirts of Bath.
The new identity repositions the museum as a country house experience with gardens – a complete day out that will appeal to young families in particular.
The garden was the first European commission for renown Washington-based landscape architects Oehme, Van Sweden. It was funded by £2m donated by friends of the museum in the UK and the US.
The new logo takes as its starting point the internationally recognised M symbol for a museum, which has adapted to reflect the neoclassical style of the museum’s main building, Claverton Manor, with its four Ionic pilasters and pediment.
The red and blue colours symbolise America and the design echoes elements of the US flag with its red stripes and star symbol.
The rebrand also aims to acknowledge the museum’s heritage while incorporating elements of the surrounding landscape and buildings. The curve at the base of the logo mirrors the shape of the Winding Way footpath through the new gardens, which is modelled on the Winding Walk at Monticello, president Thomas Jefferson’s home in Virginia.
The wordmark also draws on American design and is set in News Gothic, a sans serif typeface created by acclaimed designer Morris Fuller Benton and released by the American Type Founders in 1908. Garamond is used as the secondary typeface and reflects the heritage of the museum.
Touchpoint Design Project manager and deigner Sue Bush, pictured, said: “We were delighted to win the competitive tender for this prestigious Bath museum. Everyone at the museum was really engaged and open to making the brand identity more contemporary and distinctive than previous iterations”.
Touchpoint Design’s new identity has been applied to printed literature, staff uniforms, and exhibition interpretation panels. The agency also carried out a complete redesign of the museum’s wayfinding.
The new brand identify was launched on Saturday to coincide with the opening of the museum’s New American Garden.
The American Museum & Gardens opened to the public in 1961 with the aim of showcasing the achievements of Americans in the decorative arts and promoting Anglo-American understanding.
Touchpoint Design works across the full range of brand touch points including brand identity design, graphic and digital design. It has also worked with city destination marketing body VisitBath on its branding and website design. Other clients include the University of Bath, Bath Festivals and the Institute of Food Science & Technology.
