Gregory Obi
© Gregory Obi

Bourgey Children’s Art Gallery

Naming and Brand Identity

— ROLE

Graphic Designer


— DISCIPLINE

Naming

Brand Identity


— DURATION

6 weeks


— TOOLS

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe After Effects


A fun learning environment with interactive exhibits where children can learn about the life and works of famous artists, culture, historical events and figures. Now that’s Bourgey! Bourgey Children's Art Gallery is an unconventional arts and education experience for preschool to adolescent children to learn and play. Inspired by children's stories like the Little Prince and Alice in Wonderland, I created a brand identity with a personality that appeals to children and takes them on fun educational adventures without the trippy experiences of growing and shrinking limbs.


Problem/

Opportunity

Art Galleries and museums in most communities are tailored for a mature audience. The style in which these art institutions are run and the overall demeanor of the environment makes it impossible for children to be themselves by interacting with art, installations and enjoying an engaging experience.


These art galleries and museums with their "DO NOT TOUCH" or "WALK, DON'T RUN" signs, marble floors and Baroque art exhibitions have scarred many children, especially the ones that saw Michelangelo's David with the exposed 🍆.


The question is, how might we create an art gallery that appeals to a younger demographic? 


This demographic are at the stage of their lives where they are trying to develop an understanding of their environment, learn about the elements, arts, culture, history, people while developing the skills and habits needed to excel in life.

Development Process

Name Rationale

At first, I wanted the brand name to be a play on words like “Diagon Alley” from the Harry Potter franchise – I love you J.K Rowling. I was so captivated by that association that I began to court the name “The Alley Children’s Art Gallery”. It didn’t take long of me to realize the name didn’t work. Also, show some initiative Gregory!


While thinking of a name that best captured the essence of the brand, I couldn’t help but think of the state of a little child that’s trying to learn about the world around them, the excitement of learning something new and sharing this knowledge to proud and amused parents. This thought made my heart melt. To a parent, it was proof that their child was growing. I also considered the pretentious attitude and demeanor of adults in an art gallery. How they stare at a framed painting or statue and talk about the style and intentions of the artists they never met or knew. This got me searching and I eventually found the word, Bourgey.

  

I chose the name Bourgey as a jab at adults, who in the context of the bourgeoisie definition assume the role of society’s middle class, and their habit of visiting boring museums and galleries. A behaviour that is sometimes born out of the intention of mixing with the high in society and identifying as one that is among the cultured and sophisticated. It’s pretty much like people who play golf because rich people say it's what they love to play.


Also, I went with the name because the brand’s target audience are children who, like Malcom, are caught in the middle. They are at the stage where they are eager to explore and learn about the world around them, build relationships, develop personalities and identify their interests, aspirations and motivations. These are things that at an earlier phase of their lives were exclusively determined by their parents.


Disclaimer – This brand had nothing to do with the chart-topping song recorded by Migos.

Brand Discovery

To design the brand identity, I had to understand and define the brand. This meant understanding their target audience and identifying the brand's values, attributes, culture, personality, benefits and rewards. All this was done through a series of questions. These questions, often open-ended, create dialogue that gave insight that is later used to create the brand strategy. Examples of these questions include:


1. What does your brand stand for?

2. Besides profit, why should your business exist?

3. What are the benefits of patronizing your brand/business?

4. How will you describe your customers?

Brand Pyramid and Big Idea

I combined the insight from the discovery phase and created a brand pyramid. From the content of the brand pyramid, I also created a big idea capable of representing the present goals and future aspirations of the brand.

Competitive Audit and Moodboard

I researched a couple of art galleries to see how they communicate with their target audience, that is tone and voice, look and feel. I also did this to understand what elements and aspects of their respective brands are exploited to better appeal to their target audience. This helped me identify opportunities the Bourgey brand could exploit to further distinguish themselves.

Logo Sketches and Design

  • To design to the logo, I had to decide on the type of logo that best represents the brand. A few things I considered was the name of the gallery. Bourgey was one word so I decided the logo will be like that of 'Coca-Cola', that is a wordmark. The full name of the gallery is 'Bourgey Children's Art Gallery', but I went with "Bourgey" because it was easy to remember and pronounce. The former, I imagine, is a mouthful for any kid, but "Bourgey", that's a 2 syllable word any kid could remember and pronounce wrongly and still be right.

  • So, I put pencil to paper and made some logo sketches. The logo with rounded edges inspired a soft, welcoming and child friendly which would be the ideal logo iteration the go with but it lacked structure. I'm not a calligrapher or typeface artist so I wasn't really convinced with my sketches. I did what any well meaning graphic designer will do and looked up typefaces in foundry like Google fonts. While doing so, I started to think about brands that appealed to children, like Sesame Street, then things children love, like ice cream. I searched the internet to identify the typefaces used by ice cream companies. That's how I stumbled upon the Cooper Standard typeface. The same typeface used for the iconic 'I ❤ NY' campaign. I typed 'Bourgey' using the Cooper Standard typeface, made a few adjustments to the tracking and it worked.

  

I designed the logo with a color variation called Bourgey Yellow. This combination, which makes for a visual language reminiscent of a bumblebee, communicates a fun and playful brand identity that resonates with the brand's target audience. Other colors were picked from a set of complementary colors suggested by the magical bot 🤖 on coolors.co

Conclusion

Bourgey is a fictitious brand. However, it will be cool to see it in its full glory, decked on the walls of a children's gallery or museum. Anyone with dollars looking to design a kid friendly museum? Don’t call Pentagram dammit, call me instead.