If you’ve walked past the Harvard Art Museums’ new Prescott Street entrance or our historic Quincy Street door recently, you’ve probably noticed new signs affixed to the construction barriers. One reads “open ideas this fall”; the other, “open to many uses this fall.” The upper right-hand corners are stamped with the date November 16: the day the newly renovated and expanded museums open to the public.

As we get closer to this important moment, we’ll be generating more and more excitement to spread the word—and not just through our barrier signage, but also on our website, in Index, in advertisements, and more. After many months of development and experimentation, the museums have created a dynamic opening campaign that underscores how our three constituent museums—the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler—will finally be united under one roof in a state-of-the-art facility.

The campaign features a dramatic typographic treatment and messages that speak to the museums’ vision and the physical attributes of the new facility. Our design department looked at the building’s unique architectural elements and wrapped the text around these forms to create a distinct look. The final design weds key messages and physical spaces in fifteen different configurations, each to be rolled out in the months leading up to our opening (to see all fifteen designs, scroll through the images above).

By selecting flexible language and aesthetics for the opening campaign, we can keep our message both fresh and consistent. So whether you hear an underwriting announcement on WBUR (Boston’s NPR news station) saying “open minds this fall,” read messages on our twitter account with the tag “#opentointerpretation” following our event at Arts First, or walk past the barrier signs on campus, you’ll be reminded that the Harvard Art Museums are #openthisfall.