Go down 7 meters. And back 2,000 years.
Situated on the site of Bloomberg’s European headquarters, this cultural hub showcases the ancient temple, a selection of the remarkable Roman artifacts found during the recent excavations. The entry space hosts a series of contemporary art commissions responding to one of the UK’s most significant archaeological sites.
More than a workplace, Bloomberg’s European HQ wanted to pay tribute to the City of London. During construction, it was discovered that the site of the new Bloomberg building sits on top of a Mithraeic temple from Roman times. Given its commitment to London and its rich history, Bloomberg moved and painstakingly rebuilt the temple in its original location. It also created and a museum dedicated to the history of Roman London, honoring the City’s origins in trade and business.
Bloomberg Philanthropies and lead curator Nancy Rosen asked my team to work on the branding of the museum, which included a space dedicated to contemporary art on the upper floor.
Working closely with Local Projects and the Museum of London, we created an identity that highlights the space’s inherent duality: past and future, brought together. The identity comes to life as signage, digital collateral for the hub, as well as a campaign to announce the Mithraeum as a new cultural landmark for the city of London.
To tease the opening of the Mithraeum, we installed an outdoor exhibition about Roman London at Paternoster Square, behind St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Combining integrated media and content strategy, the campaign achieved over 60,000 pre-books in the week of launch. The London Mithraeum is now a well-established landmark in the city of London, and was named one of Time’s top places to visit in the City.
The Mithraeum’s launch campaign referenced another duality of the space: contemporary art + archeology in one single space.
We used Roman artifacts from the museum and compared them to modern objets that would be familiar to our financial and business audience.
Team:
Damian Totman — ECD
Phil Chubb — Intl. Head of Studio
Magali Nishimura, Dan Seffens — Design and Art Direction
Oliver Eden-Green, Stuart Whitmore — Copywriting
John Vallis — Project Management
Justin Malko — Executive Producer
Awards:
In-house Agency Forum 2019: B2C Publications
CreativePool Annual 2019: Publications
