Master Stroke

In today's Archive piece, Melanie Mues celebrates Alan Fletcher's classic marque for the world famous South Kensington institution, designed in 1989 and still going strong.

The first time I looked at the V&A logo up close and was struck by its versatility was in 2001. I had won the pitch to design a ‘temporary’ website for the Victoria and Albert Museum. As part of this project I had to join the web development team 'inside' the museum walls once a week, which turned out to be a real treat. It felt a bit like working in the servants’ quarters of Buckingham Palace. What a brilliant place, packed with extraordinary people.

The main attributes of the logo are elegance, simplicity and longevity. Just like the way the V&A’s collection never ceases to find new audiences so the logo has stood the test of time. I just love this clever little twist of linking the ampersand and the A – a 'stroke' of genius there from Alan Fletcher. I believe he designed it in 1989. The logo seems to be doing all the corporate work, as I can’t really make out any other elements of the museum’s corporate identity. A few years back, someone seems to have made a decision always to use the logo really prominently on all printed matter, and oddly it is always bleeding off the page too. I am not sure whether these 'rules' are not more of an obstacle than an inspiration for the design of the individual project. But the logo always seems to come out on top. It is more robust than expected from a word mark with such fragile Bodoni serifs.

I don’t know what came first, the ‘nickname’ V&A or Alan’s logo. Both continuously help to make the museum stay contemporary and accessible.