Visual Language - National Football Museum

Recently I visited the city of Manchester. I'd never been to Manchester but found the trip to be very insightful. Manchester city centre is vibrant and colourful - considering it was an old industrial city. The dark stones of the buildings are either covered in some rather flashy brand or tasteful graffiti work. Perhaps my favourite piece of visual language Manchester has to offer is the typography of the National Football Museum.

Football is a huge part of Manchester itself - both teams, Manchester United and Manchester City being in the Premier League. So the National Football Museum have opted to mirror these large brands - by including large bold text throughout their range. On the building itself is large multi-coloured text with inspired words that relate to the building and it's contents. The multi-coloured approach is nice and I can see that the designer clearly wanted the text to 'pop' out from the glass windows. However it has had the opposite effect, because when you are stood outside the building reading the words, a few of them are unreadable due to the colours used. On the other hand, the simple concept behind the typography gives the building an even more sophisticated look and feel.

The thick bold lines of the text is continued throughout the museum itself and also on their website. This consistency makes the museum look professional and also more visually appealing - which in turn could attract more guests to the museum. As the museum is free to enter, more guests may not affect their profit/loss - however it does have an effect on the surroundings businesses. The footfall brought in from the National Football Museum could help many of the surrounding business on that street and also around Manchester city centre. This support for the businesses around the museum has worked in their favour also, as many businesses are giving sponsorship to the museum in support of their Hall of Fame event.  This shows the effect the National Football Museum has had on local people and how much they appreciate it. It also shows the real community spirit that Manchester city centre has.

 

Information found via;

 

https://bdaily.co.uk/business-in-sport/07-10-2014/companies-display-team-spirit-to-support-national-football-museums-key-event/