Museum of Chinese in America

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Identity design
Print collateral
Merchandise
Signage  

Designed at Pentagram under the direction of Michael Bierut;
Signage designed with Rion Byrd

The Museum of Chinese in America was founded in Chinatown in 1980 as an archive of the Chinese American experience. Nearly thirty years later in 2009, MOCA moved into its beautiful new home designed by Maya Lin and expanded its mission to reach a national audience.

The new graphic identity system reflects the museum’s new home and increased prominence. Inspired by the tradition of the Chinese chop, a system of coordinating logos—each in a square—was developed. The flexible identity system includes a version with the Museum’s full name, its acronym, and its Chinese name. The accent color highlights the element meaning ‘Chinese’ in each mark, making the Chinese version a bit more decipherable for the English-speaking audience.

The signage system for the building complements the material palette set by Maya Lin, and reflects the refined, modern typographic approach established by the identity system.