Name
The full title of our institution is Muzejski dokumentacijski centar (the Museum Documentation Centre). We also use the abbreviated form MDC.
Logo
The Museum Documentation Center has a unique abbreviation - MDC - that is the same Croatian and English.
Accordingly, the abbreviation MDC functions equally and in the same way in international and home communications. The three letters M, D, and C form a whole and a developmental sequence: M is completely straight, D has a straight and a curved element, while C is only (completely) curved. This sequence of letters also represents Roman numerals, starting from the larger to the smaller in a regular sequence: M = 1000, D = 500, C = 100. These conceptual characteristics defined the design of the logo from the initial letters of the full name Muzejski dokumentacijski centar (Museum Documentation Center) and formed the basis for the elaboration of the design.
The logo itself is made from two basic and diverse typographies with a visible and layered differentiating characteristics: the serif (De Vine) and grotesque (Helvetica). Serif typography is early Romanesque with the same historical features, while the grotesque font appeared in the 20th century.
Their visual extremes: grotesque is equally thick and without ornamental serifs, while the serif font De Vine has a broadening line with serif decorations in the form of capitals.
This temporal and visual range between the fonts defines the timeline of the interest and work of museums whose activities are in various aspects promoted, documented, and presented by the MDC, from the earliest data, finds, and artifacts, to the media and technologies of the 21st century.
This typography is crisscrossed by lines, two horizontal and one vertical, that cut the letters into square segments and form a grid of alternate squares like the visual model of the Croatian coat of arms.
The alternation of the square fields is effectuated by the alternating use of graphics from each of the letters so that half of each letter is from one font, and the other half from the other font.
The logo as a unique image can be applied in monochrome or in colors, layered and simple, statically and in animated fashion, depending on the function, medium, or object on which it is used.
Boris Ljubičić, the author of the MDC logo and the designer of the house style