“Mad logic” – The Beautiful Meme’s Heath Robinson Museum identity

The Beautiful Meme has created the identity for the soon-to-open Heath Robinson Museum, with a logo that aims to replicate the “mad logic” of the illustrator’s creations.

The new museum is set to open next year as an attachment to West House in Pinner, north London, where William Heath Robinson lived for almost 40 years.

As well as showcasing the illustrator’s famous fantastical machines, the museum will also display cartoons, watercolours and other works.

William Heath Robinson Trust trustee Geoffrey Beare says: “We want to inspire young people wishing to study engineering and technology through the contraptions Heath Robinson illustrates, as well as artists who want to emulate the quality of his artwork, and those who want to study the social history of his time.”

For the new museum’s identity, The Beautiful Meme has created a logo which it says in inspired by Heath Robinson’s surreal machines.

The Beautiful Meme creative director Ben Haworth says: “We didn’t want to take the obvious route and litter our identity with frayed string and cogs, but we did want to replicate Robinson’s mad logic, and craft something that felt like a contraption, something that you had to work at a little to read.”

He adds: “The amazing thing about Heath Robinson’s machines is that they all look like they could actually work, there’s an internal consistency to them and you can’t resist tracing your eyes around the illustration to see what connects to what.”

Veronica Chamberlain, marketing trustee at the museum, says: “The new identity meets our multiple needs in a quirky and interesting way. Very Heath Robinson!”

The Heath Robinson Museum is being designed by ZMMA Architects and is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. It is set to open in April next year.

Discover more:

• Unseen work to be revealed at William Heath Robinson museum