МІСТ

Rebranding of the National Museum of History of Ukraine 

The key thesis of the concept is: “History is a bridge that unites the past and the future”

The National Museum of the History of Ukraine presents rebranding. The new concept was developed free of charge by the creative agency TABASCO to support the museum in its desire to become more modern. One of the key elements of the rebranding was the abbreviation: Музей ІСТорії = МІСТ.

Fedir Androshchuk, General Director of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine, emphasizes:
“A new brand is not just a cover change. Drastic changes take time. And we must clearly understand how and where we are going. The Historical Museum is not only about storing and displaying exhibits. The image of the bridge embodies the desire to unite times and cultures. The new brand is the manifesto of the museum’s development strategy.”

The graphic sign of the logo — the letter M — speaks of the unification of the two shores of Ukraine — left and right, and also symbolizes that it is in MIST that the past and the future meet, that civilization and knowledge unite.

Oleksandr Smirnov, creative director of TABASCO:

“Working on the project, we found an interesting insight. The legacy of the Soviet tradition has become terrible abbreviations that are simply unrealistic to use in life. Nobody will say: “Shouldn’t we go to NMIU tomorrow”? After all, a museum should be a place that you want to talk about and that you want to remember. Not in vain the Metropolitan in New York is called the Met. We started to spin this idea — we found images and meanings that accurately convey the essence of the country’s main museum. This is how MIST was born”.

The M sign transforms and becomes dynamic.

The main colors of the new branding are yellow-green and blue. Complementary colors are green, orange, raspberry, black and burgundy. They can be used in merchandise, navigation and museum expositions, depending on the topic.

The creative team also used the infinity theme. When placing next to different printing objects — business cards, posters, badges, etc. — a continuous graphic chain is created. Thus, it is emphasized that history is a continuous series of events related to each other.

The photographic image is assembled into a shape that is created on the basis of the sign. It is also dynamic and by playing with the shape, we get the opportunity to harmoniously use it in different formats. For outdoor posters, the idea of unification was realized through non-standard text layout and link placement of exhibition images.

Our goal is for the National Museum of the History of Ukraine to become a cult place for young people, and for this, the style of the museum must have content, be modern and carry meaning.

The rebranding was developed by TABASCO creatives — Chief Design Officer Svitlana Gorovenko and designer Victoriia Vasilyeva.

About the museum

The National Museum of the History of Ukraine is the main historical museum of the country. Founded in 1899 in Kyiv to store and exhibit antiquities and works of art.

The museum has over 800 thousand exhibits. They reflect the history of Ukraine from the earliest times to today. So, in the museum you can see tools of labor that are a million years old, stone axes, the first jewelry of people of the Stone Age, Trypillian ceramics, jewelry of the Scythians and Sarmatians, products of ancient Greek masters, silver hryvni and plinths with a trident of the times of Russia, hetman universals, Cossack banners and cannons , carriages of the Kyiv Metropolitan and thousands of other monuments from different eras and peoples who lived in the Ukrainian lands.