A brand identity for a house-museum where textiles, family stories, and everyday objects keep local traditions alive.

In 2024, my friend Roma and I represented our lyceum in a branding competition organized by Tekwill for schools taking part in its graphic design courses. Our brief was to develop a logo and visual identity for the La Mama Catița house-museum.

Located in Slobozia Mare, in Moldova’s Cahul region, the museum is part of Hora Inimii. Its custodian, Mama Catița, preserves traditional clothing, carpets, and fabrics inherited from her family. Visitors come to experience local stories, food, and customs at a slower pace.

The identity needed to be rooted in tradition, versatile, and easy to understand. We wanted to express the warmth and character of the museum while creating a visual system that could work across different formats.

We started with photographs supplied for the project, looking closely at the museum’s textiles, folk motifs, and decorative details. Moldovan embroidery and ornament became the starting point for our explorations. We considered several ways to translate the structure of embroidery into a graphic language.

The final direction combines stepped, embroidery-like letterforms with a compact ornamental symbol. The logo brings the museum’s name into a distinctive stacked composition, while the symbol can also stand on its own.

Purple leads the palette, supported by yellow, near-black, and off-white, connecting the identity with Hora Inimii’s brand colors. Redaction adds a textured typographic character that complements the geometric details of the mark.

A family of rose, cherry, and lilac patterns extends the identity beyond the logo. These motifs draw on the visual language of traditional textiles and give the system a recurring decorative element.

We brought the identity together in a brand book covering logo variations, clear space, correct and incorrect usage, color specifications, typography, patterns, and application examples. The guidelines establish how the elements can work together consistently across materials.

The project resulted in a documented visual identity that translates the museum’s cultural references into a cohesive graphic system. It connects a distinctive wordmark, ornamental patterns, and a focused palette around the character of La Mama Catița.

Year: 2024 Context: Tekwill school branding competition Collaboration: Created with Roma Scope: Logo design, visual identity, pattern design, and brand guidelines