MOMI plans expansion, logo and IMAX cinema

Expansion plans hatched by the Museum of the Moving Image on London’s South Bank would double its size and trigger a new graphic identity for MOMI.

A MOMI spokesman emphasises that this project is in “early stages, we haven’t yet put in an application to the Arts Council Lottery Fund”. He cannot give a timescale at present, but says that “the identity for the whole complex would have to be examined” if the project goes ahead.

MOMI is also working with the British Film Institute to develop a new IMAX cinema at the adjacent Bullring site, which has just received 15m from the Arts Council.

The spokesman says the issue of a logo for the drum-shaped glass cinema by architect Avery Associates, will be addressed late in 1997.

He says the IMAX will give “an amazing opportunity for graphics”, explaining that a seven- storey high inner glass drum will need designs applied to its walls. These will be changed three times a year, and will “alter the character and colour of the building each time”, adds the spokesman.

Meanwhile, Walsall Museum in the West Midlands has been granted more than 15m from the Arts Council to build a new art gallery. Interiors and architecture will be designed by London architect Caruso St John. Graphic design will be considered in a month. “It’s really crucial to appoint a top quality graphics consultant,” says project director Peter Jenkinson.

And Birmingham has just unveiled plans for its 111m Millennium Point technology centre, which is to get 50m from The Millennium Commission. Met Studio was project advisor, while Chris Wilkinson Architects and Sir Michael Hopkins and Partners have worked on exhibitions. Duo design created the identity.