A distinctive new brand image by Kabane and a powerful new website by QuatreCentQuatre
QUÉBEC CITY, June 4, 2025 /CNW/ - The winds of change are blowing through the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. The construction of the Espace Riopelle is transforming the museum complex. The Musée knew it needed to breathe new life into its identity to reflect this major milestone, inspiring it to adopt a new brand image courtesy of Kabane.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
A rigorous process involving consultation, analysis, and various workshops spread over more than a year helped shape the new brand identity, based on a strong statement: bringing people together through art.
As we move forward, we will strive to unite past and future, knowledge and art, expertise and curiosity, people and places, head and heart.
"Working on repositioning the brand image of an institution as iconic as the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec was an invigorating and rewarding challenge for Kabane. We are incredibly proud to be helping make culture even more accessible, reinventing an identity with almost a century of history while preserving its heritage, and above all, supporting the Musée as a trusted partner. This project truly shows the importance of long-term relationships built on transparency, creativity, and collaboration," says Laurie Grenier, Kabane's Group Account Director.
"I'm really proud of what we've done. The in-depth work we did with Kabane helped us not just update our visual identity, but also revisit every aspect of our relationship with our audiences. Reflection is vital to our efforts to evolve and reinvent ourselves, and it's an approach that will echo throughout the visitor experience. We've revamped our image by striking a perfect balance between the richness of our past—the living memory of Québec's art and artists from the 17th century onward, with our 42,000 works—and our promising future, with our four distinctive pavilions offering novel museum experiences," emphasizes Sophie Lemelin, Director of Communications and Marketing at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.
While we already enjoy a solid reputation, the new visual identity will help people from all walks of life to fall even more in love with our Musée and engage with the experiences we offer. The Musée is becoming the place to be, somewhere that celebrates innovation and invites the community to take part in a plethora of truly outstanding creative experiences.
A STRONG, DISTINCTIVE SIGNATURE
The new logo is bold and distinctive, embodying who we are and, above all, where we're going. Its font, designed especially for us, offers a double perspective, with a playful mix of right angles and curves. It also deliberately connects the M and the N, reflecting the meeting of the words "museum" and "national." The new visual signature also tilts text and images by five degrees. It's a nod to the moment when someone contemplates a work of art, taking a step back and tilting their head to see it better. What's more, our photos will now focus much more on people. We value candid shots, where people are in motion or experiencing an emotion.
The new brand identity comes with a bold colour palette where blue and green take centre stage. The blue evokes the North and the river, while the green is a nod to the greenery of the Plains of Abraham.
A NEW AND IMPROVED WEBSITE FROM QUATRECENTQUATRE
The logo isn't the only thing getting an update: our typography, images, and vocabulary are all changing. Even our website will be sporting new colours and features that users will love. Created in collaboration with QuatreCentQuatre to meet the highest accessibility standards, it features a major technological upgrade and better information architecture.
The new platform consolidates four websites, making the Musée, Fondation, and collections sites, as well as L'art dans ma classe, all available through mnbaq.org.
As they browse this colourful, accessible, and well-organized site, visitors can discover a wide variety of engaging content and everything else the Musée has to offer. In addition to exhibitions and cultural activities, it also showcases over 42,000 works from our collections and features new text, audio, and visual content.
"This project is a great example of what we like to do at QuatreCentQuatre: make the complex simple. We're very proud to have designed a site that's practical, enduring, accessible, and showcases the Museum's collections. To take on the challenge of combining four websites into one, we streamlined the online experience so that everyone can easily find the information they're looking for, no matter what it is. Everything the Musée has to offer is presented in a smooth, interconnected way that encourages discovery," explains Philippe Trudel Guerbilsky, partner at QuatreCentQuatre.
BECOMING A PREMIER DIGITAL DESTINATION
Our visitors, business customers, partners, donors, teachers, art specialists, and the media will now be able to browse and explore with extraordinary ease.
This first-rate digital tool will undoubtedly boost traffic and hone our business intelligence so we can fine-tune our strategies, seize opportunities, and better serve all our audiences.
SHAPING A FANTASTIC STORY
With a revamped identity, a new website, and a fresh pavilion set to open in 2026, the Musée is bursting with major developments that will help forge the future of this wonderful adventure almost 92 years in the making. It's cause for celebration!
Want to find out more? See our manifesto video : Manifeste MNBAQ 2025
SOURCE Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
PRESS CONTACTS: Linda Tremblay, Media Relations Officer, MNBAQ, 418 262-4681 | [email protected]; Montréal, Rosemonde Gingras, Rosemonde Communications, 514 458-8355 | [email protected]
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