Rhinestone: Museum of Gemstones
Fictional museum based around gemstones.
Prompt
Gemstones have always fascinated me. Ever since I was young,
I loved science, geography, and especially that pit of stones in the gift shop. Something about seeing the outside of a stone being so mundane, only to crack it open and see it's filled with thousands of little gems is so intriguing to me. Due to this, I decided I'd make a museum dedicated to all things related to gemstones, whether that be the studies that surround it, the way stones are cut and polished, or even the art that depicts/uses gems in it. I wanted to go with a clean/modern design style that truly reflects cut gems.
Images from various sources.
In order to get into the right mindset for everything, I did a lot of extensive research. I made sure to find out all the different types of ways a gem can be cut, different logos and icons that have been used to depict gems, standard modern logo designs, poster and digital ad designs for museums, general modern poster and digital ad designs, and pictures of art pieces involving gems in their cut state. What I wanted to make sure was that the branding reflected the intricacy and simplicity of gemstones and how varied they can be in every facet.
Research
Reference Photos. Images from various sources.
Initial Design Phase
First thing that had to be executed was the design of the logo, as that would determine the general feel of the entire museum. While I went through many different variations of what I wanted to do, either being more graphical or more elegant, I eventually landed on using a logo that combines different cuts of gems together in a cohesive way. A lot of the other designs were either haphazard or too simple, but the one I chose felt like a happy medium. I also wanted to go with a font that reflected this modern yet elegant look, so I went with the font you see below the logo (I modified the R as well).
Second Design Phase
After finishing the logo, figuring out the minutia of how it would be used in what situation was the next crucial step. I made a lock-up and clear space diagram for the logo and its variations to make sure that I knew when would be the appropriate time to use which iteration and how much space to give the logos wherever they'd be used. This is also where I decided on the color pallet I'd use. I looked through vibrant to pastel to muted but eventually fell on a more vibrant look. Gemstones are almost always shown to be rather bright, a color pallet that reflects this feels like the most natural.
Third Design Phase
Next was the way in which the museum would be advertised.
I wanted to make a set of three advertisements for both mediums, being printed and digital. Originally I wanted to go with either a purely graphic look or a collection of photos of the pieces on exhibit, and even looked into a "window" aesthetic, but none of them felt like the right look. What I eventually fell on was using the window aesthetic to make the graphic gem open up to images of an actual gem that shares its cut behind it. The digital ads also reflected the poster in different ways, depending on what form they are shown in.
Fourth Design Phase
Figuring out what I wanted the website to look like was rather tricky. What I wanted to do was reflect the vibrancy of gems in the website itself, and so I opted to use the same colors from the posters and digital ads that I made in the previous section. Initially I kept the design bright on the main page and dark on the other pages, but to reflect the gradient that I was using in the task bar of the website, I decided to do the same on all of the pages for the sections you could click on. This led me to using black and the respective color of the gradient to be the color for each "learn more" box.
Fifth Design Phase
I also wanted to make sure I had brochures and gift shop items for the visitors. For the brochure, my initial designs were a bit too bright for the font. I didn't want visitors to struggle to read the information, should they want to, so I eventually made the text a lot darker but still the same color that was being showcased in the brochure. I made three different brochure designs to reflect back to the three core advertisements. For the gift shop items, I debated on doing a plate (not shown), but decided against it and opted for a deck of cards and tote bags as they seem more likely to be sold.
