Exploratorium Identity

The oversized "O" in the Exploratorium logo is a symbolic "opening" into experience. It's intended to be an invitation for visitors to find “anything and everything” interesting. Beyond that, it signifies the museum's deep philosophy of empowerment; the hope for each visitor to explore and respect their own perceptions and to make their own meaning from experience. I worked directly with typographer Erik Spiekermann to create the EXPLO Font, with a stencil version based on found typography at the Pier 15 building. As a Creative Director, I worked on increasing the consistency and creativity of the museum's graphic identity.

 
 

The museum logo was expressed with a physical hole, cut through signage and die cut through business cards. Here a hole is die cut through an entire over sized annual report, including the covers.

 
 

The logo is suggested using the circular aspect of various phenomena, in a series of donor collateral.

 
 

The logo becomes a “portal” view through a circular frame in a oversized capitol campaign brochure.

 
 

The Exploratorium is an institution that embraces eccentricities. One of my challenges was to gradually reinterpret the very disparate public program identities, to move toward more of a family resemblance of identity. Here the identity is suggested through the circular shape of sub identities, like a box of chocolates.  

 
 

Identity:
Logo Guidelines
Campus and Signage Guidelines
Annual Reports
Capitol Campaigns
Identity systems
Membership
Development
Public Programs