Launchpad Rockets Its Way to a Million Visitors

Harry Pearce’s team at Pentagram has designed the identity and environmental graphics for the recently refurbished Launchpad, an interactive gallery aimed at schoolchildren in the London Science Museum. Pearce has created a vibrant, colourful identity that reflects the spirit of fun inherent to Launchpad, where learning is presented through hands-on exhibits, play and experimentation.

Since its reopening in April, Launchpad’s success has been unprecedented. The gallery attracted its millionth visitor this week, two months earlier than predicted and up to 6,000 people per day have been passing through the doors. August, the gallery’s busiest month so far, saw 180,000 visits. Over half of weekend visits to the museum are made to see Launchpad and the gallery’s fans include the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who said of the exhibition: “I have seen the future and it works.”

Launchpad’s identity is based around a dynamic typographic logo, set within a variety of coloured grounds that trail from the letterforms to give the logo a sense of motion and speed which visually engages with the concept of a launchpad. These blocks of colour also become the basis for the gallery’s environmental graphics, providing a distinctive frame for photography, illustration and moving images.

A selection of video clips created for Launchpad that demonstrate the identity’s ability to accept the application of photography, colour and moving images. 

Pearce has previously designed environmental graphics for the Dana Centre, the Science Museum’s debating and lecture space.