Children’s Museum puts on a friendly face.

Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh provides hands-on exhibits, crafts, live performances, classes, and creative experiences for children. To enhance their services and grow their exhibit space, the museum embarked on a major expansion project. The board of the Children’s Museum felt the expansion project provided an opportunity to revisit the museum’s branding—updating its name, logo, and marketing materials. Brady Communications was tasked with this important project.

To provide a valid basis for new thinking and branding, we began by conducting brand research into the core values and personality of the museum. It wasn’t long before we learned that the museum was perceived as a friendly and creative place for learning. Its value came from hands-on play where kids drew upon their own imagination and creativity to learn. This fundamental observation later became the basis for the new identity.

Brady Communications began the identity phase by changing the museum’s name to emphasize “Children” rather than “Pittsburgh.” This simple yet significant change in focus led to our creation of their new logo and identity materials. In addition to the logo, the word “Hi”served as a basis for applying the brand to a variety of marketing and promotion materials.

Creating the Logo

Brady Communications considered nearly a hundred variations for a logo before settling on a simple, friendly design that emphasized the letters "h" and "i." More subtly, the logo put prominence on the word "Children’s" over "Pittsburgh" and "Museum," reminding visitors, patrons, donors, and board members of the organization’s mission.

Hi

The word "hi" embedded in the logo could be used alone for a variety of applications and extended the brand expression.

Creative Color

Choices rather than standardize on any one color, multiple color palettes were provided for the logos, business cards and letterhead to reinforce the museum’s playfulness.

Stationery that Stands Out

Words that capture the spirit of the museum such as "Play" and "Imagine" were included on the backs of cards and letterhead to provide a glimpse into the museum’s character. To minimize costs, the letterhead system also used a series of electronic templates to provide a variety of forms while reducing inventory needs.

Setting the Standards

An online identity guide helped the museum and its partners apply the new identity consistently for the launch.

Building Sales

The new logo offered an opportunity for merchandising sales and worked well on a variety of products for sale in the museum shop.