Children’s Museum of Denver
Location
Denver, CO
Completed
2016
Client
Children’s Museum of Denver
Fabricator
Ad Light Group
Awards
2019 Graphis Design Annual, Gold Award
2017 The One Club for Creativity – Denver Annual Show, Gold
2016 HOW International Design Awards, Award of Merit
2016 GDUSA American Graphic Design Award
Consistently listed as one of America’s best museums for kids, The Children’s Museum of Denver recently underwent a massive expansion, more than doubling in size, adding state-of-the-art exhibits and increasing its capacity to host even more visitors. The museum made a concerted effort to design new exhibits that were both sophisticated enough for adults to enjoy and engaging enough for children to have fun and learn at the same time. The ArtHouse team drew inspiration from the geometric lines of an Etch-A-Sketch, the ubiquitous children’s toy & translated this into a simple and elegant wayfinding motif. This allows users to be able to pick up the wayfinding and signage trail anywhere on their journey through the museum.
The Etch-A-Sketch concept made its way into everything from hanging signage to restroom graphics to innovative blade signs that can be read from both sides as a pure line in space. In an effort to include the honest, natural materials that The Children’s Museum used in designing their new exhibits, the ArtHouse team incorporated wood, mirrored finishes and natural metals to add a timeless, authentic quality to the design, adding pops of color here and there from the museum’s new brand. One of the most eye-catching pieces that ArtHouse designed for the new museum expansion is a dimensional origami bird perched on the exterior façade of the building.
This bird, based on the museum’s new logo is an embodiment of the idea of learning and imagination coming to life, something the museum strives to provide for its guests every day. ArtHouse also designed custom wall graphics to recognize donors, changeable content signage, decorative banners for the parking lot and custom regulatory signage that can be found throughout the site. With rave reviews from the Children’s Museum staff, the ArtHouse team’s designs pull everything in the museum together, providing cohesion for the existing spaces, new additions and the interior and exterior. ArtHouse Design worked on this project, in part, as an in-kind donation in an ongoing effort to support Denver’s cultural institutions.