As an on-staff graphic designer (or, rather, THE on-staff graphic designer) of a museum, the repetitive nature of the work can start to grind you down. I had seen a job offer online and decided to mess with the concept, even though I wasn’t going to get the freelance gig… you know, to keep those creative juices flowing. The job was for a baby food company in one of the antipodal nations who needed a logo. I found the idea of it intriguing so I took a shot at it.
A few years back, on the heels of the release of The Imitation Game , MoMath hosted a puzzle hunt based on that film. To that end, the exhibit designer and I were tasked to create a codex cylinder for one of the problems the participants were to solve. He created this lovely acrylic and magnet device and my job was to make the letters to be manipulated to break the code. Seeing that the hunt was based on the movie, and the movie was based on Alan Turing’s quest to break the German ENIGMA code during World War 2, I used the ENIGMA code machine as an inspiration – using typewriter-style lettering for the letters, and including a patterned interior based on the housing of the ENIGMA machine itself. These devices are still used by the Museum education department as part of their code-breaking lessons.
The Museum hosted a debate around a year ago highlighting the pros and cons regarding the current state of high school level mathematical education in the United States. I was asked to create a backdrop (which also acted as an advertisement on the Museum website).
Unfortunately this project – a promotional brochure for a furniture restorer – died in the making… which is a real shame. I loved how it was coming along, and I respected the heck out of Marco and his amazing craftsmanship. The shop in Queens was a wonderland of tools and in-progress work. Marco is still in business, but now out in Nassau County, Long Island, instead of Queens, NY as can be seen in the copy.
As a side note, every color in the palette of this brochure was inspired by the things in Marco’s studio.
The directive was to come up with a logo for what is hoped to become an annual mathematics festival for New York City. In the end, the Museum decided to go for a more generic look for the promotional material, but I was quite pleased with how these were turning out so I decided to showcase them here.
Every week, the president of the National Museum of Mathematics creates two puzzles that appear in both The Wall Street Journal and the website varsity.momath.org. The task here was to create a logo for these puzzles for their title: Varsity Math. The number to the bottom right of the logo indicates which week the puzzles are related to – a later addition to the design that I’m quite pleased with. It reflects the theme and is easily changed from week-to-week.
The designs below were created for an exhibit at the National Museum of Mathematics called “Robot Swarm,” which explores the algorithms that describe the swarming behavior of animals such as birds and insect. A video and article appearing on The Verge regarding the exhibit appears here.
These were concept designs for the logo. I’d originally been going for a “Wall-E” style design, but after speaking with the Chief of Design (Exhibit Designer) and seeing the chassis for the actual robots, I decided that a concept that was more informed by that movie’s love interest “EVE” was far more appropriate.
This was produced as a sign that was hung on the draping that surrounded the build.
The schematic for the window display appearing in the Museum’s shop: Additions.
This design was used as both the signage above the exhibit, and as the banner above the digital controls – below which appears the graphics describing the five swarming behaviors available to the museum patron to interact with (the yellow dot represents the patron).
This is a design for a new advertising design firm. They were looking for something easily reproduced for billing and invoicing purposes.
Here are some examples of logo designs:
Medora Environmental: the parent company of SolarBee.
HomeSelect: Hubbell Electrical, which has been specializing in industrial and commercial wiring supplies for over 100 years, decided to get into the home wiring business in response to the housing boom of the time. Here is the logo they chose:
And here are some designs for St. Vincent, Milone & O'Sullivan Advertising that were done around the end of 2008 in response to an office move (it was decided, in the end, to keep the original logo):
Here's some more work:
From a client called SolarBee. They produce a product that circulates water in potable and municipal water facilities as well as lakes using solar power to avoid algae growth and keep the water clear of any other toxins. These are part of an ongoing testimonial campaign.
Jason Polkovitz 