Berkshire Museum

The greatest challenge facing Berkshire Museum was deciding who they were and who they wanted to be.

They could see the gap between how they saw themselves and how they were being seen. They wondered how they could be listed as a destination in the Berkshires for their local community and those visiting the area.

They were also seen as a children’s museum, and folks might not be aware of their extensive collection of fine art. They wanted those art connections to inspire and educate visitors.

Our challenge was to create an identity, messaging, and a new website that addresses the issues they told us about, and bring new life and meaning to everything they do next.

We began our first discovery session with in-person exercises that would include the voices of everyone who wanted to see the museum succeed.

In a room with the new director were their marketing people, board members, and front desk staff.

We dove into questions about the purpose of the museum and wrote their answers on the board. This process led them to consider what everyone was saying, allowing us to see the red thread that tied it all together.

This was followed by a series of facilitated sessions where we talked about their patron personas, their brand as a person, and how they saw the museum in the next 5-10 years. We documented everything we learned and followed up with a presentation of visual and messaging ideas. We took small steps toward their brand identity and made sure everyone was on board.

We pitched a few different logo ideas to the team, and there was a clear winner.

Berkshire Museum is located in an historic building, and it will never change. It will always be a part of how Berkshire Museum presents itself. The logo uses the iron window above the main entrance as its mark, and the mulit-colored arrows symbolize direction, pointing in.

Berkshire Museum has rotating exhibits, drop-in lectures, music, and other events.

We saw that most museum websites separate their events from their exhibits. We think it makes more sense to put these things together and let the visitor see everything that's happening at the museum in one place.

We developed a custom WordPress calendar that allows the museum to add exhibits alongside events. They can choose multiple dates, a date range, a single date, or a permanent exhibit, and include time, location, and ticket links in an easy to use layout.

Museum staff can order events and exhibits by hand, mixing permanent exhibits with upcoming events. Everything can be filtered by type or by date, and visitors can search by keyword so things are easy to find again.

In our brand strategy sessions, we learned about the 4 types of personas that visit the museum.

The colors, typography, messaging, and design elements were ready to greet them. Next, we needed to map out the new website.

We worked with their team to create a diagram of all website pages. We considered how information could be grouped, and connected pages to others, showing how the visitor could move through the website. We created a set of wireframes which showed layout ideas and the information hierarchy, sparking discussion about what’s important as the visitor travels down a page.

Their new website is simple, welcoming, and easy to use. We created a 50-50 split design for their team to rearrange blocks of content that fit perfectly together while having fun with color, media, and typography.