Institute of Digital Memory
Feb. 2021 – May 2021
Brand Designer
Context
Case Study
Keywords
Brand Identity, Iconography, Style Guide
Tools
Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign
The Institute of Digital Memory (IDM) is an imagined museum dedicated to data storage technology. I worked on this project in the spring of 2021 at MICA individually. This project will be summarized online, but for in-depth details, the final slide deck and full brand guideline can be found here.
Concept
With the rapid advancement of technology, new inventions quickly become obsolete and forgotten. The Institution of Digital Memory is a museum commemorating technology that helps us to remember. This includes, hard disk drives, solid state drives, and cloud storage. IDM hopes to educate adults, while also celebrating the technological evolution of how we store virtual data.
In my initial sketches, I wanted to echo the complex structure of physical data storages, while also conveying the change and evolution of technology. In particular, data storage transitioned from physical storages to online, cloud storages within a century. In my design, I wanted to emphasize the development, while also expressing connections of internal physical storage device parts. At the same time, I did not want my logo designs to feel boring and obsolete so I tried to incorporate a twist of modernity and sleekness into the different design sketches.
"Technology is complex and built piece by piece."
After refining the logo, I started defining the design system, including the lock-ups and clear space as well as brand colors and typography.
Brand Identity
This final logo represented both the old and new method of data storage. While echoing the shapes of servers for cloud storage, it also shares the node pattern of a circuit board found in physical data storages. It is a flexible logo that can be used modularly to build patterns and other shapes.
The colors of the brand referenced the physical appearance of circuit boards, while also maintaining a fresh and contemporary look with colors that reflected modern technology.
"...focus more on the history and evolution of devices and technology rather than the mechanics."
Once the brand guidelines were established, I began to research posters, graphics and potential museum products. The final applications were designed for a special exhibition, "History of Digital Memory." They included posters, web pages, social advertisements, brochures, themed coasters, spatial designs and many others.
