When is a bus not a bus? When it's a Museum on the Move.

Initially invited by Warwickshire County Council to submit ideas for this radical new concept of getting a 'Museum on the Move' (MoM) to the public via a bus, Watermark was successful in winning this challenging and exciting commission. Museum on the Move is a West Midlands regional partnership to provide a fleet of 3 bespoke vehicles delivering museum services across the region. The project has been funded through the West Midlands Hub under the 'Renaissance in the Regions' project. Broken up into 3 regions, Warwickshire & Worcestershire, Shropshire & Herefordshire and Staffordshire and the West Midlands Metropolitan area.

Museum on the Move aims to reach audiences who may not 'come to' a museum - so MOM is travelling to schools, homes for the elderly, day centres, travellers sites, shopping centres, village fetes and community events to encourage usage amongst those who are not traditional museum visitors.

Each vehicle's exhibition will change annually and cover a wide range of topics, launching with 'Go with the Flow'(The life of rivers), 'Beneath our Feet'(Conurbation) and 'Climate Change'.

Watermark was commissioned to create a branded image for MOM with design in 5 areas – logo, stationery, leaflets, posters and the main element the livery for the vehicles.

Logo:
Created with simplicity in mind, the logo is a combination of a typestyle and symbolism that portrays a vehicle in movement, fun to look at, bright use of distinctive colour and flexible in various formats and sizes.

Stationery:
With 3 regions to consider each were given an individual second colour that identified their region and the addition of tinted graphics relating to the vehicle designs created a linked relationship.

Leaflets:
It was important to keep a branded style working through all the material and give the clients the flexibility to adapt material for future exhibitions.

Posters:
All sizes from A4 to massive on the side of the vehicle, again following a clear format but with one large image that attracts attention, informs and interests the audience.

The Vehicles:
Working with the strapline 'Routes to Discovery' created by Watermark, the design has graphics that relate to pathways and routes through history and time. Branching off from the 'routes' are a collection of items and objects that relate to topics and are also specific to each region. Each vehicle has a particular secondary colour to the base of the vehicle that is linked with the stationery combined with bold and vibrant coloured route lines means the vehicles are hard to miss.

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