Corporate identity – hfg design museum

The HfG Archiv Ulm is the museal institution about the important German design school “HfG Ulm”. The museum, which is placed inside the original building of the school, uses iconic products to explain the history of this influencial institution.

The task was to design a new way, of how the museum of the Hochschule für Gestaltung of Ulm appears to the public. Since the institution is associated with the city museums of Ulm, it has no clear differentiation from a designerly point of view. This imprecise positioning of the museum leads to a weak identity, which has no specific target aim.

The goal of the “hfg design museum” is to open up the history and influence of this important institution to a wider public. The target in not any longer only people of the subject, like researchers and designers, but it is for everyone which is interested on how this school wanted to “redesign” the future of Germany after WW2.

One of the guiding principles for the HfG was “Transparency”.Transparency, intended as “clearness” was constantly present in the approach of the school. In design, the transparent attitude helped students to concentrate on what was the main focus of most hfg products: Functionality. The transparent approach was also shown by how the school faced the difficult times of recent german history. Their aim was not to hide, but analyze it, with the purpose of creating a better world through “Gestaltung” (=Design). They wanted to reinvent the future of Germany by using design. This leads to the tagline of the identity: «see through design».

Given this particular approach of the design school, also in the new corporate identity “Transparency” was used as a keyword for every single component.