Maison Gainsbourg gathers the historic house of the legendary French artist Serge Gainsbourg with a museum, a book & gift shop and ‘Le Gainsbarre’ a café during the day and piano bar at night. The identity we designed is based on the archival research we've done during the 2 years which led to then opening of this unique place in Paris: the signature is one of many left by Serge Gainsbourg, chosen in collaboration with his daughter Charlotte, and carefully digitized. Our custom typeface, Nocturne, is based on a single sheet of paper found in his house were, in the 80's, Serge Gainsbourg tested the different fonts available on his IBM 6750-3 typewriter. Starting from the "Pica 72", we created a new typeface with 45° angles at the junctions, reminiscent of the black and white cabochon paving of his living room. The handwritten red notes which structure the visual system are all sourced from his manuscripts and typescript works. And the final key element of the visual system is the artist's profile symbol. We drew it as a discreet evocation of the smoke of Gitanes favored by Serge Gainsbourg. We designed the overall graphic system which was then applied to each and every communication medium: communication posters, entrance tickets, the external and internal signage in collaboration with Xavier Morlet, the objects on sale in the store designed in collaboration with Arteum, and the website developed with Area 17, and do on.

Credits
photo : Alexis Raimbault for Maison Gainsbourg, Emmanuelle Lubaki ©Yorgo&Co.

other credits : Arteum (product development and communication supervision) Xavier Morlet (museum signage and visitors booklet), Nathalie Crinière (museum scenography), Mamasam (online boutique website development)