With a bold new identity rooted in imagination and expertise, the Children’s Museum of Denver turned its expanded campus into a destination where play and learning soar.
The Children’s Museum of Denver is a vibrant, spirited place where curious young minds explore, learn, and create through play. Following a successful capital campaign, Mission Minded was hired to help relaunch a campus that had tripled in size and invited visitors into fun, hands-on experiences like a three story climbing tower and a bubble factory.
We uncovered that too often design for children’s museums looks like it was designed by children instead of for children. So we knew that the right new visual identity needed to balance creativity, fun, and spontaneity with sophistication, expertise, and wisdom. It needed to invite children to let their imaginations soar, while also reassuring parents that the museum had deep knowledge about the best ways to deliver an experience that’s both fun and educational.
Based on deep strategic insights about their impact, audience mindset, and yes, competition, we designed a logo that uses a tangram to emphasize the spirit of adventure and the journey of childhood. The new logo is a symbol of reaching for new heights, while the trail it leaves invites participation in the journey.
The full visual identity expanded to use colorful illustrations that conveys children’s natural curiosity and creativity. It emphasizes the strength of kid-powered learning and how it opens doors for Colorado’s curious young minds to express what they know and to discover more. Playful photography brings an authentic human element. Close-ups, faces, action, and activity show what it feels like to come to the museum. Color-coded, specialized patterns represent the visitor experience, bringing together science and discovery, nature and exploration, and arts and creativity.
The visual identity—and the strategic ideas behind it—guides every aspect of the museum experience, with environmental graphics that convey the museum’s intentionality behind the visitor experience.
