M+ is Hong Kong’s new Museum of Visual Culture, focusing on 20th and 21st century visual art, design, architecture and moving images. The high-rise building faces Victoria Harbour, and its façade, embedded with LEDs for displaying the M+ logo and screening moving images, can be seen from the West Kowloon waterfront promenade and across the harbour from Hong Kong Island. The giant façade, evoking the neon signs which Hong Kong’s busy streets were once famous for, is an integral part of the new museum’s visual identity.
A marriage of science and aesthetics
M+ is designed to be recognisable, practical, and intercultural. Its colour concept comes from the human eye, and its science-based, conceptual, and human-centred identity reflects the museum’s core vision, contemporary architecture, and the spirit of Hong Kong. On a clear night, the lit-up façade becomes part of the Kowloon skyline, highlighting Hong Kong’s cultural scene, familiar landmarks and world-class performance venues on both sides of Victoria Harbour.
City of colours
M+’s visual identity works across the institution’s physical and digital assets, connecting the big LED screen on the façade, its website, social media platforms, wayfinding, and the grand opening campaign. The range of mid-tone colours from medium grey to vibrant orange or cyan and purple or pink, brings the red-green-blue (RGB) hues to 50% black for tonal consistency, and was chosen to reflect Hong Kong’s urban fabric – the grey concrete high-rise buildings and the colourful, bold advertising billboards and commercial signs that are everywhere in Hong Kong. The black and white lettering is always legible and memorable.
M+ beckons
M+ is an open, accessible platform, paying tribute to Hong Kong’s dynamism and energy, and promoting empathy, respect, multiple perspectives, and creativity. This does not distract people from its diverse works and programmes, embraced in the variety and quality of the Museum’s collection. Designed for both online and offline displays, it attracts both local and international visitors to Hong Kong's ascending art and cultural world. The government’s initiative to create an artistic hub and a lifestyle destination in Hong Kong means that M+ can be seen across digital platforms and in offline media everywhere.
Through visual culture, M+ is an open and accessible platform and space promoting empathy, respect, multiple perspectives, and creativity. As such, its visual identity needs not distract members of this community from the diverse array of works and programmes that are housed or held at the Museum. The mid-tone colour scheme can be viewed as paying tribute to Hong Kong’s dynamism and energy, while embracing the differences and interventions represented in the Museum’s collection. Designed for both online and offline displays, it attracts both local and international visitors to Hong Kong's ascending art and cultural scenes. The Government’s initiative to create a creative hub and a lifestyle destination in Hong Kong means that M+ can be seen across digital platforms and in offline media globally.