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Amsterdam Museum presents revamped museum brand

To conclude its rebranding, the Amsterdam Museum – the museum about the present, past, and future of the Dutch capital – is unveiling a new visual identity and the first version of a new digital platform. Both projects tie in with the aspirations of the city museum – now over 95 years old – to evolve into a museum of the future. In recent years the Amsterdam Museum stirred the international heritage world with the decision to reconsider the term ‘Golden Age’ and with the innovative exhibition about the Golden Coach, the carriage of the Dutch royal family.

Amsterdam Museum

The Amsterdam Museum, founded in 1926, tells the capital’s stories and oversees a collection of over 100,000 art and heritage objects. In recent years, the museum has been creating high-profile projects such as the digital exhibition ‘Corona in the City´, the talk show AM Live and the major, multi-voiced exhibition ´The Golden Coach’. The Amsterdam Museum was nominated for the national Museum Award in 2021 as one of the best museums in The Netherlands. As from March this year, the museum opened the doors to an entirely renovated wing at the Amstel 51, which is set to be the Amsterdam Museum’s home for the next few years while the main site on Kalverstraat undergoes large-scale renovation.

New visual identity

Following a pitch, the Amsterdam Museum selected Studio Sallali Vaverka – a recent collaboration between renowned graphic designers Hamid Sallali and Isabelle Veverka – for developing a new visual identity. They had previously been involved with and behind cultural brands such as the international photo fair, Unseen, the international opera festival Opera Forward and the cultural membership We Are Public. “Our new brand identity includes a new logo, a new typography system, a new color palette, and a logomark based on Amsterdam’s Saint Andrew’s Cross. The identity is being applied in campaigns, media, and three-dimensionally in the design of certain sections of the renovated Amsterdam Museum wing at the Amstel 51,” says Maurice Seleky, Head of Communications & Marketing at the Amsterdam Museum. “The identity is rooted in the museum’s new brand strategy, with a mission placing an emphasis on ‘connecting’, alongside the four other core values of ‘Amsterdam’, ‘Open’, ‘Narrative’ and ‘Relevant’.”

New digital platform

The Amsterdam Museum also developed a new digital platform in collaboration with digital design agency Bravoure, which is also behind leading platforms such as International Theatre Amsterdam and Amsterdam Dance Event. “We are developing our new digital environment in various phases. We are currently presenting a relatively modest initial version, and launching an expanded platform later this year,” says Seleky. “The new identity and our new digital platform tie in with our aims of being a connective museum brand. As a network museum, we are connective between generations, themes, and disciplines. And in particular, also between people themselves. This means that together, we’re constructing the museum of the future.”