Museum-Memorial of Terrorism, prefiguration mission, visual identity

The purpose of the Memorial Museum of Terrorism is to pay tribute to the victims of terrorism in France and around the world. It is also a museum of history and society, focused on knowledge and education, which will open its doors in 2027.

It marks the desire of the public authorities and victims’ associations to pay tribute to all those who have been struck by terrorism in all its forms. It is conceived as a place of memory and history of this violence of war in times of peace, which has marked French society as well as many other countries since the 1970s.

This unique project is at once a museum of history and society, a platform for documentation and research, a center for training, conferences and debates, and a place of remembrance. It will be located in Suresnes, on the hill of Mont-Valérien, in the former École de plein air built in 1934 by the architects Eugène Beaudouin and Marcel Lods.

We have been mandated to think about the overall visual communication and to propose the graphic identity of the prefiguration mission of the project.

Introduction

Our questioning was first of all about the way to communicate such a project, in graphic and iconographic terms. To find the right distance, the right angle, which allow to approach the subject in a clear way, and to transmit the intentions of the project without offending.
How to graphically echo the mission, which is precisely to get out of the stupefaction that this type of event produces? In contrast to the often aggressive and invasive media treatment, we had to find new visual codes that would help us to step back. In order to allow reflection and understanding, the basis of resilience and the primary objective of the Memorial Museum project.

Resistance and reconstruction

The designed sign expresses a sequence; a representation of steps towards a recovery. It is a symbol of resistance and reconstruction. The monolithic forms that compose it represent both the individual on a personal scale and society as a whole. It identifies a goal and a path to reach it, and thus contributes to make explicit the intentions of the project by formalizing them.

The typographic typeface that composes the logotype is Next by Ludovic Balland. Its design is inspired by constructivism and humanism, echoing the architecture of the building and the mission of the project.

The mission was presented to the President of the Republic and to the government in the form of a Scientific and Cultural Project (SCP).

Signage elements were considered, as a continuity to the prefiguration on the site.

A graphic system based on the architecture of the building

The graphic system designed allows the deployment of the visual identity on any type of support. It is built to echo the window frame structures present in several places in the building. More than a simple compositional grid, this system offers a way to enter the narrative, both on an individual, personal and experiential scale, and on a larger, national and holistic scale. Thus, from the near to the global, all the different views of the subject can be represented.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the entire team of the Mission de Préfiguration du Musée-Mémorial for their attentiveness and involvement, and more particularly Mr. Henry R., President of the Mission de Préfiguration, Mrs. Elisabeth P., Executive Director, Mr. Rachid A., Secretary General, Mrs. Catherine E., Coordinator of the Museum Center, and Mrs. Marie S., Communications Officer.