V&A Enterprises in branding talks with Rose Design

The Victoria & Albert Museum’s commercial arm, V&A Enterprises, is in talks with Rose Design about working on its brand. The news follows on the heels of VAE’s roll-out of a new identity by Aboud Creative.

VAE has not yet briefed its rostered group Rose Design, which recently designed a new book collection called Pattern (pictured) (www.designweek.co.uk, 10 July), on what it will be doing. But it has secured the consultancy’s services for a branding project.

Aboud Creative designed a logo last year for VAE, which embraces the V&A’s retail and publishing divisions.

The consultancy, which is not on the V&A roster, created a marque, but then paid another group, Why Not Associates, to help it refine the identity.

‘We worked on the logo in the latter part of last year, after Alan Aboud said that he was struggling a little and could do with a fresh pair of eyes on the project,’ says Why Not Associates senior designer David Ellis. ‘We pulled the marque back a little, simplifying it away from the 3D element to make it more graphic,’ he says.

The logo is to appear on the V&A’s books. ‘The logo is being phased in on book covers and packaging for licensed products, across publishing, on our website and on labelling,’ reports a museum spokeswoman.

The museum’s online shop, which is run by VAE, is currently being redesigned by Cabinet and is due to be relaunched in September. The V&A has just appointed The One Media to redesign its main website.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that the museum is likely to cancel its annual Village Fete, exactly ten years after first hosting the popular design event, which took place for the last time at the weekend.

‘It is likely that this will be the last Village Fete. After ten years it feels like a natural time to refresh the format,’ says a V&A spokesman.

V&A enterprises:

• V&A Enterprises is rolling out its first identity, created by Aboud Creative
• The commercial arm of the V&A is set to launch a new online shop in September, designed by Cabinet
• V&A Enterprises, which encompasses the museum’s publishing division, has just launched the first in a new series of books on patterns, created by Rose Design