Ed visits the Country Music Hall of Fame

Posted March 24, 2009 1:19 PM | By Ed | 1 Comments
Tags: art, cultural, design study

Being the music buff that I am, I naturally jumped at the opportunity to check out the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum while visiting Nashville this March.  The hall was completely revamped in 2001 and along with exhibits it houses an extensive library of audio recordings from the past century. The architecture of the $37 million dollar building - with its clever structural motifs such as the piano key facade, the diamond-shaped radio mast, and the layout in the shape of a bass clef - was one of just a few highlights of the tour.

Another design element of the museum that caught my eye while strolling around was the great use of typography. Museum exhibits often use ubiquitous type and muted accent colors so as to allow the material on display to be the eye-catching element.  The designers of the CMF chose a different approach, combining exhibit elements such as instruments and outfits with lively typography and eye-popping color.

The entryway to the museum - notice the piano key motif across the top.

Artwork above the ticket booth, clearly drawing inspiration from the Hatch Show Print artwork seen on so many concert posters.

Vibrant color on display along with unique typography.

Fun map outlining the different regions and origins of country music.

Seven different fonts all combined in a harmonious fashion.

The legendary Hank Williams and his Martin D-28.

One of the many walls covered with gold records.

This quote was about 30 feet wide and ran across one whole wall of the museum. The use of the three completely different fonts together added an interesting dimension to the text on display.

I'm not much of an art collector but if I was this would be a cornerstone of my collection. Hank Williams shot each of these squirrels himself in the 1940's. He then took them to a taxidermist and requested that each be stuffed and given an instrument to play.