Silesian Museum in Katowice / wayfinding system

Bronze

The new location of the Silesian Museum is one of the biggest museum investments in Poland. The entire structure of the Silesian Museum buildings located on the territory of the former Katowice coal mine, together with other institutions form a Cultural Zone. The main part of the architectural structure is a 7-storey building, from which 4 floors are below the ground level.

The complicated structure of the buildings required developing a really sophisticated design of a signage system. It was followed by original pictograms (we established ouerselves a limit – we decided that our icons should show the „human dimension” and always consist of human silhouette accompanied with other characteristic symbols) and a serie of visual graphics. The design process included developing the graphical and decorative elements for all the spaces of the new Silesian Museum, both official and administrative. It also required planning communication pathways and make a wayfinding in the park between the buildings.

During design process we limit ourselves to strict rules. We used limited graphical language (dark grey, white & green colour) and dedicated, original information carriers. All the elements were in harmony with museum’s architecture & existing branding. They were also referred to each other – all carriers have characteristic curves which refer to pictogram’s shapes. Besides decorative function, the curve & green colour highlights the most important information on the board (about the level, etc.)