Field Museum rebrand updates logo, places greater emphasis on science

Chicago’s world famous Field Museum announced its first brand refresh in nearly two decades on Tuesday. Not only an aesthetic overhaul, the effort aims to change how people think about the 125-year-old institution and its research-focused mission.

The most immediate and perhaps obvious aspect of the latest rebrand comes in the form of a new logo. Featuring a more compact, square-shaped depiction of the institution’s name, the redesigned graphic sports a blue color scheme inspired by the sky, the oceans, and the Earth itself.

Field Museum

Even the logo’s period holds significance. The punctuation mark serves as a visual representation of how only a small portion of the museums’s vast collection of nearly 40 million specimens and artifacts are on public display.

The new design is more contemporary, sleek, and in-your-face than the one it replaces, but is also part of a larger effort to bring attention to the institution’s bold commitment to furthering scientific understanding.

While some may think of the Field Museum as simply a big building by the lake housing exhibits for tourists and school children, it is in fact home to a world class research facility employing more than 150 scientists currently engaged in groundbreaking work.

A video showcasing the museum’s behind-the-scenes team and their various excursions in the field (no pun intended) was released as part of the rebranding effort. It features a new slogan: “Earth. We’re on it.”

Meanwhile, the Field Museum is hard at work to redefine the visitor experience with a number of upgrades to the building’s exhibition spaces.

The most notable transformation will take place in Stanley Hall with the addition of a 122-foot-long replica of a titanosaur skeleton. Overhead, the new dinosaur will be joined by a squadron of model pterosaurs and suspended planters featuring the kind of live flora that would have thrived along side their extinct flying reptile counterparts.

The museum’s most famous fossilized specimen—Sue the T. rex—has been moved out of Stanley Hall to be updated, repositioned, and reinstalled in a dedicated display gallery on the building’s second floor. Sue’s new home is expected to open to the public in spring of 2019.

Field Museum

• Our Mission: A Commitment to Earth’s Future [Field Museum]
• The Field Museum’s Mission: A Commitment to Earth [YouTube]
• Sue’s big moving day at the Field Museum [Curbed Chicago]