Akademie der Bildenden Künste München logo

Akademie der Bildenden Künste München

Akademie der Bildenden Künste München
Designed by BÜRO ALBA, Germany, 2008

Casa da Música logo

Casa da Música logo

Casa da Música

Casa da Música
Designed by Sagmeister Inc, USA, 2007

Centre Georges Pompidou logo

Centre Georges Pompidou logo

Centre Georges Pompidou

Centre Georges Pompidou
Designed by Jean Widmer, Switzerland, 1974

Gothenburg Museum logo

Gothenburg Museum

Gothenburg Museum
Designer unknown
Via Gustav Karlsson (in the comments)

Habitat 67 logo

Habitat 67

Habitat 67
Designer unknown
Via Jean Chouinard (in the comments)

New York Botanical Garden logo

New York Botanical Garden

New York Botanical Garden
Designed by Pentagram, USA, 2000

Nouveau Theatre de Montreuil logo

Nouveau Theatre de Montreuil

Nouveau Theatre de Montreuil
Designed by Aurelie Gasche and Delphine Cordier, France, 2007

Petronas Towers logo

Petronas Towers

Petronas Towers
Designer unknown

Rockefeller Center logo

Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center
Designed by Chermayeff & Geismar, USA, 1985

Sydney Opera House logo

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House
Designer unknown

Any others you can think of?

Comments

Petronas looks awful. A pair of elegant towers with a logo that looks like a product of the primitive pixel partnership.

The Adelaide Festival Centre is an under appreciated gem of early 70s architecture

http://studyadelaide.com/wp-content/uploads/festival_centre.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3607/3391714546_b9a50b1f00.jpg

Here’s it’s logo. Not anything amazing, but nicely evokes the ‘face’ of the building.

http://www.advantagesa.com.au/upload/AdelaideFestivalCentre180.jpg

There’s a much better version of the same logo floating around, all in white, with the negative space forming the building shape. Sadly it has never caught on anywhere other than corporate and catering pamphlets!

It´s great to see the Portuguese Casa da Música featured here, it’s an amazing work of art, and it was very important that the logo can mimic this important building. As you said the design idea was there all the time but nevertheless the designers involved have to realize that as well. I wish I could always be aware of what is right in front of my nose!

Logos for institutions that simply copy the architectural shape of the building they’re in have always seemed a bit lazy to me. It’s especially problematic when the making a sign for the building, potentially leading to putting a picture of the building on the building itself.

Here’s a project where I worked on signage, but was saddled with a very unimpressive logo, The Connecticut Science Center: http://ctsciencecenter.org. I worked on this with Michael Bierut at Pentagram, and we decided wholeheartedly to do avoid the logo.

Another recent project of his draws inspiration from the building but in a less literal way, The Perot Science Museum. http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/perot_museum_hoists_brackets.php. The idea is solid, but the execution is questionable I think.

One that’s definitely worth mentioning here is the logo for the Milwaukee Museum of Art. Not only has the architecture informed the design of the museum’s identity, but it has become the logo for the entire city.

The MAM Logo: http://yoa.uwm.edu/uwm-day-at-mam

A piece from Underconsideration on the Milwaukee logo: http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/002193.html

Obviously it was a bad idea for the city of Milwaukee to create a logo so similar the art museum’s!

Share a thought