National Maritime
Museum Cornwall
Job:12-84823 Title:RP-Graphic Design That Works (LDW)
175# Dtp:120/163 Page:54
Text (DS)
Client
The National Maritime Museum Cornwall
is a British museum devoted to nautical history.
DESIGN DIRECTOR
Mary Lewis
D
ESIGNER/TYPOGRAPHER
Paul Cilia La Corte
FIRM
Lewis Moberly
Process
Hoping to attract national and international visitors alike, the National Maritime
Museum Cornwall wanted a mark that had immediate visual appeal to a wide range
of cultures. Paul Cilia La Corte, who was responsible for the design, knew the mark
had to refer to the museum’s collection of boats, but hoped it would also convey a
sense of the museum’s location in Cornwall, an area of dramatic cliffs and sweeping
views of the sea. One approach involved combining nautical elements into a sea cap-
tain’s face; another featured a seagull made from a boat’s reflection. Neither, however,
produced what Cilia La Corte was looking for: a sense of the museum’s friendliness
combined with the poetry of the sea. Shifting courses, he sought out images of small
boats from the museum’s collection as well as information about Cornwall’s history.
“Cornwall has quite a long tradition, not only in boats, but in art as well,” says Cilia La
Corte, referring to the British art movement that grew out of the artist’s colony of St.
Ives, Cornwall, in the 1940s. In particular, he was drawn to the work of painter Ben
Nicholson, whose spare, geometric abstractions evoke the wide-open spaces of the
sea. Using forms similar to those found in Nicholson’s work, Cilia La Corte created a
design that could be read both as a sailor in a boat and as a scene depicting a cliff, the
sea and the sun. The result, Cilia La Corte hopes, gives “a sense of pleasure of being
by the sea and messing about in boats. It’s intended to be inviting and involving.”
What Works
The logo, composed of two curved shapes and a circle, encourages multiple
readings. On the one hand, the curved forms suggest a sailboat; the orange circle,
a sailor. On the other, the curved forms evoke the silhouette of cliffs and sea; the
circle, a setting sun. Both interpretations capture the spirit of sailing celebrated by
the museum.
040-069 84823 10/12/05 2:05 PM Page 54
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