The goal of this project was to rebrand an existing museum logo as well as create signage and merchandise.
The museum chosen was the Godzilla museum in Awaji Island, Japan. The driving design theme of this project was the characteristics, culture, and history behind the king of the monsters.
Godzilla originated as a metaphor for the nuclear bombings on Japan during the end of WW2. The visual language chosen was hazard or warning signage, as the loud bold iconography fits Godzilla’s stature as a giant monster, but also reflects the militaristic origins.
logo development
Thumbnail sketches
Additionally, various methods of representing Godzilla were explored such as his spikes, head, or tail. This was done in order to find the best balance of literal and visual metaphor while effectively communicating to the audience what the museum was about at a glance, as well as indicating to fans that knowledge and love for the character was put into the concept's development.
Digital Roughs
Typography
The typefaces chosen for the signature are Armada and Jetlab. Armada was chosen due to its letterforms matching the head shape of the mark. Jetlab was chosen for its bold, loud, animalistic feel. The “i” of Godzilla was trimmed and made into a lowercase “i” with the tittle being Godzilla’s eye to create a sense of continuity between the mark and the signature.
Final logo set
Since Godzilla is a Japanese character and the museum is located in Japan, a simple monochromatic red color scheme was chosen to connect the design as much as possible to Godzilla’s cultural origins.
One of the most defining characteristics of Godzilla are his massive size. To communicate his size, Godzilla is shown but mostly cut off, only the top part of his head and some of his spikes visible. The overall shape and pose was inspired by a scene in the 2019 film.
Another of Godzilla’s defining characteristics is his status as the king of the monsters. To symbolize this, Godzilla’s iconic spikes in the mark are arrange in a way to be a visual metaphor for a crown on his head.
logo in context
