This project involved the development of a new branding system for the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, a museum in Florence, Italy. It included the creation of a new logo, identity system, and examples of branding applications.
The Opificio delle Pietre Dure was initially founded by the Medici family in 1588 as a workshop for the creation of semi-precious stone artworks. Though it stopped producing these works with the death of the Medicis, they can still be seen on display within the museum.
The Opificio additionally functions as an art restoration center, and has played a role in restoring some of Florence’s most famous works of art.
With the Opificio delle Pietre Dure’s history and founding purpose in mind, the identity system was created to visually express the ideas of restoration and piecing-together that are present across its different functions.
To reflect the puzzle-like process of creating semi-precious stone inlays, the logo was designed with variability in mind. Based on geometric forms found across the museum’s works, the logo consists of a 4-sided shape with an ellipse subtracted from its center. Along with the museum’s wordmark, the logo can be flipped or separated depending on its application
Applications of the branding systems involve integrating the logo with the works found in the museum. For materials like posters, postcards, tickets, and business cards, parts of the stone mosaics and textures from the semi-precious stones are applied to the logo and its pattern variations.
