The Victoria and Albert Museum

The logo for the Victoria and Albert museum is beautifully simple, but not powerful enough for a museum of this caliber.  The logo uses serif font to display the first letter of the names in the title linked by an ampersand character.  The logo is unique in the fact that it only displays the first letter of each name expecting viewers to know the museum.  The font used is elegant and simple, yet artistic because the sizes of the stems on each symbol vary.  The left part of the A is also missing and the crossbar is formed by the ampersand, but the font is easily legible.  The logo is open and airy like many of the areas in the museum with tall ceilings.  However, the simplicity of the logo understates the museum's collections.  The colors in the logo are often muted or bland, such as whites and dark reds.  The logo should give passerby a taste of the objects in the museum, mirroring an object's colors or patterns.  Since the logo only features three characters, it cannot take up a lot of room on banners or promotional materials.  This lessens the impact it has on viewers because it is naturally small compared to other words or pictures.  The logo could be bolder if it featured the full title of the museum while retaining the artistry of the current logo.

The Cast Courts were overwhelming due to their sheer size.  Trajan's Column was enormous and had immense detail on every inch of the column.  Some of the original artworks must have taken years to create.  I liked the objects from Northern Europe and Spain more than the ones from Italy because the colors made them even more impressive.  The objects were featured in a large room with high ceilings and Trajan's Column in the middle.  I think this added to the experience because it created an ominous, awe-inspired feeling, especially when walking past many of the tombs with the deceased carved into the top.  This collection can help visitors see a wide range of impressive statues and architecture without having to visit each of the individual places where these works of art are located.  Many of the carvings on the tombs can indicate common style and dress at the time the piece was created.  Figures carved on tombs were probably wealthy and can help historians learn about the ruling class. Images on columns and archways illustrate biblical scenes and stories.  For example, the carvings on Trajan's Column illustrate battles and conquests during the time of his reign.

I think the icons and symbols in the Isotype exhibit have more personality than the international system of signs because they are more colorful and represent a wider array of objects.  Many of the charts were used to illustrate different groups of people based on their health, education or origin.  The symbols also represented objects other than people, such as the tractors pictured above relating to tractor production in the USSR.  Although many of the symbols are not meant to be comical, they appear amusing because of their illustrations.  For example, the center picture shows a person who is spreading tuberculosis germs as a faceless figure with sun-like rays sprouting from their head.  The symbols, especially the ones featured in the children's book covers use bright, illuminating colors such as red, yellow and green.  Many icons in the international system of signs are often black or white on bland backgrounds.  Like the international system, the faces and people in the objects of the exhibit do not show emotion or mood.  I think pictures and text are a more efficient way of communicating to a wide array of people because they are universally understood.  Although text is necessary to decipher specific pictures or provide a scale of what each symbol represents, pictures and text make it easier for people to comprehend an overall situation and spot patterns in information.

The first picture is tile from the tomb of a descendant of the prophet Muhammad.  The second picture is a reproduction of the grille around Queen Eleanor of Castile's tomb in Westminster Abbey.  Each of the tiles has a slightly different pattern and color.  The patterns illustrate nature imagery, such as flowers, leaves and vines.  The colors are all earth tones, such as variances of red, brown and yellow.  The shapes of the tiles are crosses and octagonal stars.  Each tile fits together with the ones around it like pieces of a puzzle.  The pattern doesn't have any sharp corners or edges.  All the shapes are soft and rounded.  Each tile has scripture from the Qur'an outlining the pattern.  All of the tiles have a central picture, a flower-like image, and all of the other pictures spread out from the center image.  These pieces of tile evoke a calm and serene feeling.  There are no harsh shapes and the images and colors are calming.
  The grille evokes a colder, distant feeling.  It is all one color, black, and has spikes on top.  These spikes are all different, some have arrows on top of the spikes and others do not.  Since they are gathered in three prongs, they evoke pitchfork imagery and warning.  However, below these prongs, the grille is beautiful.  It also does not have any harsh corners or points and the pattern in each rectangle is different from the previous one.  The patterns include nature imagery of flowers and vines and also include swirls and circles.  Unlike the tiles, the grille is not flat, but rather curves outward as it nears the top, making it more prominent.
  It is interesting that although both of these items were used for caskets or tombs, they do not contain any death or afterlife pictures or imagery.

From "Museums: Branding and History."

The London Underground seems sophisticated in logo design and efficiency than the Madison Metro.  The logo for the Underground is bold and easily distinguishable.  It combines a strong red with a royal blue to make a round, target-like shape illustrating the exact location of bus and tube stops.  The Madison Metro logo seems weaker and more indecisive.  It combines the primary colors red, blue and yellow, which give the logo a juvenile image.  The letter m is repeated above the word Metro. But because it’s in the same font as the letter m in metro, it is unclear whether it is to emphasize the m in the word metro or to indicate Madison.  The Metro in Madison also isn’t as efficient as the Underground in London.  There is no subway system in Madison, only buses, and from my personal experience they are not as reliable as the subway system and buses in London.  Additionally, double-decker buses in London add to the efficiency of the transportation system because they take up the same space on the road as normal buses, but offer a convenient second level for additional passengers.

This item is the "Stemma of René of Anjou" from 1466-78.  The item is a coat of arms made for Jacopo de' Pazzi.  It displays René of Anjou's coat of arms in the center and the motto "dardent desir" or "burning desire."  The coat of arms includes a suit of armor helmet with dragon-like wings coming from it.  There are also pots of fire on either side of the coat of arms.  Surrounding the outside of the piece are vines with leaves and lemons.  This object initially caught my eye because of its size and bright colors.  Usually a coat of arms has reds and blues or silver and gold, but this one has bright yellow and green mixed with purple.  I really like the dragon wings in the center that alternate purple and yellow.  I found it amusing that fruit on the outside of the piece surrounded the coat of arms in the center.  I like the overall design of the piece and would go back to see it again.