Germany's capital is one of the world's most inspirational cities for design, as we saw in our guide to off-the-beaten-track creative attractions in Berlin. Is it possible to capture all of that creativity in a single logo design?
The answer is no, according to Stadtmuseum Berlin, or Berlin Museum as it's now called. Its dramatic rebranding breaks the rules of logo design by introducing a rotating roster of, by my calculation, up to a staggering 81 different wordmarks. Is it a cop out to avoid settling on a single winning identity – or could it be design genius?
Berlin Museum isn't a single place but a decentralised foundation operating across several locations and curating a vast collection dedicated the city's cultural history. Its previous umbrella brand of Stadtmuseum Berlin was deemed to feel distant and dusty; the rebranding had to make the museum's purpose easier to understand.
The new name was chosen for its simplicity, making it clear that the museum is about Berlin in all its facets, while also aiming for greater international recognition.
As for the logo design, there's no bespoke type or definitive design. If you visit the website, you'll notice that every time you refresh the page, you see a different combination. Each version pairs two different typefaces drawn from a pool of nine.
That would seem to contradict the wisdom that a logo should be immediately recognisable, but then the rules are there to be broken when you have good reason. The reason in this case was to reflect the diverse stories and perspectives that make up the city.
"Berlin cannot be told in a single voice. And that is why it cannot be expressed through a single typeface," the museum says.
Created by Stan Hema, the decision to use myriad logos was born from a realisation of the importance of typography in Berlin itself, from the "clear signage of the Underground" to "handwritten board stands outside a late-night corner shop".
The typefaces chosen were either directly inspired by Berlin or picked to represent elements of the city’s history, architecture and places. There's type from the signage of the Deutsche Oper underground station, alongside Moskau Grotesk, based on the lettering of Café Moskau on Karl-Marx-Allee in Mitte.
Futura Black Stencil was chosen to represent the broken letterforms of post-World War II illuminated signage still be sen in shopfronts in Charlottenburg. ABC Maxi recalls the neon signs you might see outside late-night Spätis in Neukölln or snack bars around Kottbusser Tor, while Neureal represents the clubs, digital culture and technology of today's Berlin.
The other typefaces are WT Bobine, for some "West Berlin flair", Crack, to represent "street style in Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg", CMM Coda to represent the city's bureaucracy and EK Roumald to echo lettering found on late nineteenth-century façades in areas such as Prenzlauer Berg and parts of Moabit.
"It was only logical to develop the design from the city itself," Stan Hema says of its work. "The new wordmark draws its typography directly from everyday Berlin: from U-Bahn stations and historic buildings to the currywurst stand. The result is a flexible identity that adapts to each location while always remaining recognisable as the Berlin Museum: direct, with a mind of its own, and always open to people and perspectives. Just like Berlin itself."
We've seen a bit of a trend towards infinite or evolving logo designs in recent years, from the Patreon rebrand to the LA28 Olympic Games logo. Someone even grew a logo in a Petri dish.
What I like about Berlin Museum's approach is that it makes the logo feel like part of the museum's collection. The branding showcases Berlin's contributions to typography, part of its rich design heritage, while also highlighting the complexity of any city's mix of different, often contradictory stories and perspectives.
