Typophile

Museum logo typeface identification

Oisín

Hello all,

Below is the logo for the Danish Museum of Art & Design. I’m taking a graphic design course, and the task for the exam is to make some (hypothetical) material for this museum. To create a stronger bond with the museum’s own site, I wanted to use their own font where possible (despite the fact that they seem to use Helvetica more), but I can’t figure out what font it is, and whatthefont.com seems stumped, too.

I hope someone here can help with a positive ID—otherwise, I’ll have to see if I can get in touch with someone at the museum directly.

Jan Erdmann

I think this is customized squooshed Frutiger. I wonder if what they have to show in that museum is as ugly as their logo.

aa101

Looks too harsh and artificial...

Stefan H

It's clearly a logotype and I doubt that they have a font made out of it. If you need to know, why don't you contact them directly? I agree some of the letters are way out of proportion and the overall "picture" looks unbalanced indeed. To me the "R" is also bolder than the rest.

Oisín

I will try contacting them directly; I was hoping it was a recognisable font, but if it’s a custom job or (worse) and Illustrator job, then I guess I’m pretty much out of luck.

And for some reason, I rather like it for this exact purpose, except for the R, which I find dreadful as well. The museum focuses on industrial design (furniture, porcelains, etc.), and it fits rather well with the overall style of the museum.

Oisín

A month later.

I contacted the museum, and you were right, Stefan. The logo is made by Bo Linnemann of Kontrapunkt (who has made many far superior faces—I wonder why this one is so sub-par), and there is no font made from it, only the letters needed for the logo were made.

Captured from web.archive.org on 20 Oct 2013. view this capture