UPDATED BRIEF - "Branding the Community Hub"

The MOD

No Slogan, "Museum of Dufferin" the full name could be incorporated.

Dear Designers: Our sincerest apologies! We recently launched a contest, however in the middle of the contest, the municipal corporation that owns and operates our facility discussed and confirmed a change in name for us.
We are now being rebranded as "The MOD - Museum of Dufferin". Please note, we are re-launching the contest for 24 hours. Design concepts that were previously submitted (for the "DCMA" logo contest) are still being considered for the next phase (if you are selected for the next round, we would just ask that you change it from "DCMA" to "The MOD" and work with you from there.)

Moving forward, we envision The MOD as the dominate feature of our brand, followed by Museum of Dufferin.

The name change, and our brand, is inspired by the ways in which the word MOD can be interpreted. It can mean Modern/Modernism, and the youthful spirit and culture of the original “MOD” scene of the late 1950s and 60s.

It’s a careful balance in our branding we are after. It must be authentic and community, professional yet fun, timeless and “super cool”.

With our branding, we will build our audience who will refer to us as The MOD, similar to The MET in NYC, and the ROM and AGO in Toronto. And we totally see us having the coolest t-shirts, black, with our stellar “The MOD” logo in white. Can you see it?

So…we are located in a beautiful area of scenic countryside north of Toronto. Our immediate context is rural and rolling hills, yet we are located on major transportation routes that people from the city use to drive up to vacation/cottage country. As a result, we need to appeal to both the local community and the urban singles and families travelling through the area.

The MOD is where (literally) the city meets the country, perfectly.

Other points to consider:

We are renovating our space and using this opportunity to rebrand!

We look like a barn, but we’re a museum. We are an interesting mix, we are a “rural” museum, but our interior exhibits have a clean, modern feel to them. We host traditional exhibits with artifacts, but also host modern/contemporary/abstract art shows in the Silo Gallery.

Many of our visitors are from the surrounding community, but we also have many guests that come up from the big city of Toronto. With our main visitor demographic being in the 65+ range, we hope to attract a younger audience (20-50 year olds) with our “fresh new look”.

Our guests are MOST impressed by the historic buildings INSIDE our museum! We have a historic log home, a fraternal lodge and a small train station that were placed inside the museum when it was built. You can go inside each of these buildings to explore.

In addition to exhibits and art shows, we host events, like weddings and symposiums. We run school programs, concerts and workshops…and the list goes on. We really are the community hub!

WANTS:

- We want our logo to be modern, but classic. Country meets city.
- We don’t necessarily want the barn to be in the logo, but maybe…if it is done in an interesting way!
- We are being rebranded as “The MOD” “Museum of Dufferin” – these letters should be used in the design of the logo.
- No specific colours – but perhaps after looking at pictures of our facility and the landscape, you can be inspired!
- The picture of the AGO signage is the essence of what we are after, both in terms of look/font of “AGO” and the size and relationship between AGO and the full name “Art Gallery of Ontario.”

Please send us a message if you need any clarification on the changes to this brief.