Museum

Synonyms / Other Terms Used

Gallery, Salon, Exhibition, Art Gallery

Category

Public Facilities, Tourism, Heritage Attractions, Entertainment

Message / Function

To indicate the location of a museum

	Source	Description
	Braunstein & McLaren	Building with triangular roof and eye on building wall
	Ico Z	Outline of building with letter M in the middle
*)	ON Testdesign	Outline of building with two round-arched portals
	DER	Antique temple like building with four columns and triangular roof
	ISO 7001	Antique temple like building with base, four columns, triangular roof
	EJP	Antique temple like building with base, four columns, triangular roof
	Handbuch wien.gv.at	Antique building with base, four columns, triangular roof
	Pannicke & Eschenbach	Antique temple like building with base, four columns, triangular roof
	SIS	Antique temple like building with base, three columns, triangular roof
	Argentina MSV	Building with stairs at base, front with four columns, triangular roof
	UKDT	Antique building with columns, letter M in the middle
	BTA 1989	Antique building with columns, letter M in the middle
	BS 8501:2002	Triangular roof on top of letter M on top of horizontal line
	Peru	Sans serif capital letter M, inverted V above
	CNIS	Side view of antique building with columns, object in the middle
	Dreyfuss	Inverted V above column with Ionic capital on top of horizontal line
*)	ON Testdesign	Antique column with Ionic capital
*)	ON Testdesign	Old bulbous pottery with two handles
	BTA 1989	Side view of vintage car
	Unknown	Letter M, light source with three beams above
*)	ÖNORM A 3011	Capital letter M with serifs towards the inside
*)	ON Testdesign	Capital letter M like a Greek meander segment
*)	ON Testdesign	Antique meander segment
	Bolivia	Building indicated by two horizontal lines above three vertical bars
	Vuković	Bold capital letter G
	Krakow	Painters palette and two brushes
	Schiphol	Human figure in front of old style frame
	BS 8501:2002	Human figures next to perspective view of hanging frames
	Unknown	Human figure in front of hanging frames
	UoI	Human figure in front of frames
	CNIS	Antique building with columns, picture inside

Discussion

The collection shown above is only a small selection of the wide variety of pictograms, symbols and logos used all over the world to indicate the location of a museum or gallery. This set of symbols already indicates that there is no iconic representation available that could be used for all kinds of museums. The variants used range from representations of buildings, individual exhibits, concepts with the letter M to very abstract solutions. And a look at logos of museums one will not find a consistant trend except displaying names or abbreviations of institutions.

Kraft (1976) examined twelve variants for Museum using an Appropriateness Ranking Test. Pictograms like the Dreyfuss variant showing antique objects were preferred to all other designs studied, including meander segments and two variants with the letter M.

In the ISO test series of the years 1979/80 a pictogram similar to the pictogram of ISO 7001 was tested as variant for 'Item of cultural interest'. Less than 20 % of the responses were related to 'Museum' (Easterby & Graydon, 1981). Twenty years later this pictogram variant reached a comprehension score of 29.9 only in a Japanese study to propose domestically unified graphical symbols based on scientific methods (Eco-Mo Foundation, 2001). This confirms the results found before.

When Fiori (2008) examined a map symbol similar to the version labled DER, only 19.5 % of the responses were classified as correct. A total of 65.2 % of the participants gave wrong answers including Palace, Theatre, Greece, etc. and 15.3 % did not respond at all. These results again illustrate the insufficient associations between the image of a classical temple and the message Museum in general.

In a study by Brugger (1981) the six pictograms labeled *) from the set shown above were tested on appropriateness for representing eight different types of museums. The test designs used were derived from pictograms available from several countries. While representations of objects like the antique column with Ionic capital or the pottery with two handles were seen as appropriate for representing some specific museums, they were rated as completely inappropriate for other types of museums. The most abstract variants were judged least appropriate. The variant showing the capital letter M with serifs towards the inside reached the most homogeneous ratings of all variants tested, but still did not reach very positive results.

Recommendation

ÖNORM A 3011 Pictogram No. 82

There is no way around learning a symbol for Museum, as there is no iconic representation available that could be used for all kinds of museums and possible solutions will fail in any test of comprehensibility. Therefore - and also as the equivalent of 'Museum' starts with an M in many widely used languages - we recommend the use of pictogram No 82 of ÖNORM A 3011 part 4, a rather neutral variant that can be used for all types of museums.

Tests of pictograms for the referent Museum

Brugger, Ch. (1981): Die Bedeutungsumfelder verschiedener graphischer Symbole zum Begriff Museum. Report to the Austrian Standards Institute dated October 1981, Vienna.

Easterby, R.S. & Graydon, I.R. (1981): Evaluation of Public Information Symbols: ISO Test: 1979/80 Series. Part I: Appropriateness Ranking Tests. AP Report 99, Applied Psychology Department, University of Aston in Birmingham, January 1981.

Easterby, R.S. & Graydon, I.R. (1981): Evaluation of Public Information Symbols: ISO 1979/80 Test Series. Part II: Comprehension/Recognition Tests. AP Report 100, Applied Psychology Department, University of Aston in Birmingham, January 1981.

Eco-Mo Foundation (2001): Test data of public information symbols in Japan - Procedure for the testing of public information symbols by the Study Committee. ISO: ISO/TC 145/SC 1 N 329.

Fiori, S. R. (2008): Mapas para o turismo e a interatividade - proposta teórica e prática. Tese de Doutorado - Depto. de Geografia, FFLCH-USP.

Kraft, E. (1976): Ranking-Test. Report to the Austrian Standards Institute (ON) dated 09/76, Vienna.