Museum of London Docklands emphasises culture, music and food with sun-washed identity

Museum of London Docklands is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a campaign and identity from London-based Studio Bergini. There are a lot of spinning plates within the work – from an architectural mark to archival elements – but the core concept is to capture the landscape, multicultural community and history of the East End and its Docklands.

“We were aiming for a straightforward concept with immediate impact, but one that carried some depth beyond the immediate impression,” says Studio Bergini partner Kristian Hjorth Berge. The campaign was created to promote the museum’s summer of events which extend until October, celebrating the music, food, people and culture of the East End. The anniversary date for the museum itself falls on 10 June 2023, which it rang in with a street party.

The commemorative mark uses juxtaposition and harsh angles. According to the studio, the inspiration came from the museum’s post-industrial landscape, and the collision of “centuries-old infrastructure, machinery and warehouses set against glass towers and monorail trains”. The typeface Megazoid from David Jonathan Ross (DJR) provided the basis for the logo and is paired with Dinamo’s Marfa.

While the mark expresses the ‘feel’ of the Docklands landscape architecturally, the imagery highlights community and history. Rather than using modern event imagery, Bergini looked to the museum’s online archives. “We discovered a series of photos taken by local photographer Henry Grant around East London in the mid-1900s,” says Kristian. “The photos showcase a diverse population mugging for the camera in eccentric poses at all kinds of celebratory settings”. Bergini has repurposed them for the campaign, where they appear as duotone backdrops.

After creating many initial iterations for the campaign concept using hyper-local cultural phenomenon – from “Pearly Kings and Queens” to “locally discovered old lettering and ghost signs” – Bergini landed on its final approach harnessing juxtaposing forms and vibrant colour.