With this revision of elements forming its corporate design, the Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung in Berlin is further consolidating its strategic orientation as the world’s leading collecting and research insti- tution for the Bauhaus and the history of the design school’s influence. The Bauhaus-Archiv conducts research and presents the history and influence of the Bauhaus (1919–1933), the 20th century’s most impor- tant school of architecture, design and art. The website www.bauhaus.de will be launched today, featuring a new design and expanded content.
"With our new design, we have rendered the transformation in our institution outwardly visible and tangible", declared the director of the Bauhaus-Archiv, Dr Annemarie Jaeggi. "Our visitor numbers and the collection’s holdings are constantly growing. In 2019, to mark the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus, we will be adding a new Bauhaus-Museum building on our grounds. Along with historical Bauhaus themes, we have increasingly begun to pursue the question of the degree to which the Bauhaus influences and inspires our lives today. This dichotomy is magnificently displayed by the newly created house typeface 'bayer next', the newly designed Internet portal bauhaus.de and our unmistakable printed materials. It is therefore a very special pleasure for me to be able to publicly present the sense of anticipation to be found within our institution by means of our new self-presentation."
The new overall design developed by Professor Sascha Lobe and his team at the Stuttgart agency L2M3 Kommunikationsdesign GmbH, encompasses not only the stationery and other printed materials of the Bauhaus-Archiv, but also numerous other materials applying this design, such as exhibition catalogues and the semi-annual programme magazine. The design of the museum’s website was also fundamentally revised by L2M3. The new information and control system in the interior and exterior areas of the Bau- haus-Archiv will be installed in the coming months. In mid July 2014, a poster campaign in the Berlin met- ropolitan area will already be launched in cooperation with the Wall AG and will present the new image of the Bauhaus-Archiv to the inhabitants of and visitors to the capital city of Berlin.
The “bauhaus-archiv” word mark, which was developed by the Bauhaus master Herbert Bayer, was taken up by the creative agency and carefully supplemented.
"Our intention was to stir memories of the Bauhaus legacy and to make use of already available resources for the self-presentation of the Bauhaus-Archiv. We thus developed a concept that communicates the essence of the Bauhaus and, through its technical and aesthetic innovations, is simultaneously suited for a cultural institution’s self-presentation in a manner that is up to date and effective in terms of publicity", explained head designer Professor Sascha Lobe. "A globally active institution like the Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung requires internationally comprehensible and effective instruments of communica- tion, which we have developed within the framework of a unified, but simultaneously flexible system."
"Archive of glyph forms"
Along with the revised word mark "Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung", the system developed by L2M3 for the Bauhaus-Archiv encompasses an extensive set of characters featuring the new house type- face "bayer next" and glyphs taken from historical Bauhaus texts. In this way, unlimited possibilities have been created for adapting the design’s application in printed materials and digital media. In the words of Professor Sascha Lobe: "We paid homage to the diversity of the archival material by redrawing the glyphs and examining further possibilities for their adaptation and modification – we have created a total of over 500 characters and gathered them together in an 'archive of glyph forms'."