CMP Has a New Brand and Website
Cornwall Museums Partnership is an independent charity that was formed by museums in 2015 to provide leadership for Cornwall’s museums; to support them, represent them and give them a voice. We believe in the value of museums and the difference they can make for people, communities and the planet. We’ve tried to capture this in our purpose statement which is ‘to support positive social change with museums’.
Our ambition is to be recognised nationally and internationally as a pioneering model of collaborative leadership which promotes innovation and resilience in the museums’ sector and beyond.
We help to build innovation and resilience in the museums’ sector; we want to shift the dial in terms of the impact museums create. By working in partnership with museums, we help them use their collections to foster happy, healthy and prosperous communities where heritage is valued and celebrated.
In 2020 we decided to do some work on our brand, to help us better achieve our vision and purpose.
The new CMP brand utilises a geometric type of mark; simple shapes spell out CMP but also make striking shapes to help reflect our aims and values as an organisation. It is accompanied by a bold and modern new colour palette which we can adapt for different projects and collaborations.
The overlapping shapes were designed to convey synergy, connection, and one of our core values, collaboration – we seek out new opportunities through meaningful partnerships. Building strong and lasting connections with communities is an important aspect of CMP’s work, and so is being agile and responsive. We felt the previous brand didn’t quite fit with who we are, where we’ve come, and our future vision.
The new brand is dynamic and adaptable. It works with a wide range of colours, as well as incorporating imagery and patterns within the basic shapes. This aims to convey our focus on innovation. The logo is simple in its essential design but complex and flexible in its application.
What does this rebrand mean for our partners? The refreshed CMP brand supports our aim for Cornwall’s museums and CMP to be recognised and promoted nationally and internationally as sector leaders. We are hoping that our new brand will help us to reach new audiences and broker new partners for museums in Cornwall. We are still Cornish, we are still rural, and these characteristics fuel our appetite to innovate from the edge.
We hope our new brand, will help us to bring together partnerships from across the globe and reach a wider, more diverse audience.
With our new brand, comes a new CMP website. To keep up with the pace of current and new innovative projects, we felt our website needed to better demonstrate our impact with museums, as well as the four core values in which drives CMP forward: collaboration, inclusion, integrity and innovation. The website has been designed and developed to support us in delivering measurable outcomes against 10 of the UN Global Goals and our commitment to show leadership for the sector by a Net Zero organisation by 2030.
The new design is bold and different, but throughout the whole process, accessibility and usability were our focus. Navigating easily around the site whilst accessing relevant and topical information was our priority. Museums will find the latest resources to support with fundraising, marketing, visitor experience and more. You will have access to current eLearning, which we will be able to update more easily. We will be transparent with what we are tackling, and ensure our partners are always at the forefront of everything we do in our purpose of creating positive social change with museums.
As you begin to navigate around the website, you will see we have incorporated the Cornish language to ensure we don’t lose our Cornish roots. Our latest Impact Report has been designed with the Cornish language embedded throughout and includes a “play me” option on the front cover with spoken Cornish. Although we have a new brand and logo, the things you are used to will stay the same. Our website address will continue to be Cornwall Museums Partnership dot org.uk and the teams’ email addresses will remain as they are.
We know there are still a few tweaks to be made, but the great thing about our new website is that it will adapt to change and as the times move forward, so can we. We will officially be launching the CMP brand and website to the public on Friday 8 October, but we will continue to update, adapt, and ensure the website is supporting the museums of Cornwall to help them become more open and connected to the people they serve. We’d love to hear your feedback.