Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA)

Polymode led a complete redesign of OCMA’s visual identity, brand materials, and website to welcome the museum’s new building, opening in 2022. The site, designed in collaboration with Happening Studio, features colored hues that shift throughout the day based on the current time in Orange County, CA. The typeface, Kent was designed by Jaimey Shapey.

Lead Partner – Silas Munro
Supporting Partner – Brian Johnson
Designer – Randa Hadi
Designer/Developer – Happening Studio

Poetic Research

Studying Sunsets

Southern California is a complex, multilayered place, connected to its ecological and geographical features – the sky, ocean, trees, and architecture. OCMA’s visual identity and website feature a dynamic design system that reflects the light and space of Southern California. The OCMA collection also features a strong representation of California art and the Light and Space movement.

    We wanted to understand how light moved through space and time in California to help situate the viewers traveling the ether into OCMA's website. We mapped the sun's movement on a specific day, following the sun's position at sunrise, meridian, sunset, and moments in between. By analyzing the sky through photo studies, it helped us attach colors to specific moments in time.
    The color palette is a series of complex choices influenced by the vibrant California skies through different moments in time.
    The color gradients capture a specific moment in time in Southern California's vibrant sky. The color shift is visually represented as a dynamic component on the website to reference the dynamism that OCMA embodies.
    The new OCMA building by Thom Mayne of Morphosis Studio.
    Kent typeface inspired by Sister Corita Kent.
    The relationship between the architecture and the typeface.