The museum has a new name!
The museum continues its transformation and becomes
L’Imprimerie. Musée des Cultures Graphiques
An antique book, a poster, a typeface, a logo, a comic strip or a video game: images and symbols tell the story of who we are, while shaping our everyday lives. In Lyon, the Musée de l’Imprimerie et de la Communication graphique is becoming L’Imprimerie. Musée des Cultures Graphiques [Museum of Graphic Cultures].
A new name reflecting the museum’s transformation, the renovation of its Renaissance building and the creation of a completely redesigned visitor journey, embracing the diversity of graphic forms, from the earliest to the most contemporary.
- A museum that invites us to look differently at the images around us
- From the history of printing to graphic cultures
- A renovated and more accessible Renaissance building
- Two floors, two ways to explore graphic cultures
- A new visual identity that tells the museum’s story
- A collective project, brought to life by a wide range of contributors
- A living museum, even during the renovation
- See you in 2027 and 2028
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Downloads
1. A museum that invites us to look differently at the images around us
Why do certain typefaces feel familiar to us? What can a poster tell us about the era in which it was created? What connections can we make between a book printed during the Renaissance, a contemporary logo and an image shared on social media?
L’Imprimerie. Musée des Cultures Graphiques [Museum of Graphic Cultures] invites visitors to explore these questions and take a fresh look at the visual forms that surround us. Images, letters, symbols and graphic objects are not simply elements of our environment: they convey ideas, shape our imagination, communicate information and bear witness to the societies that produce them.
With more than 32,000 objects in its collections, the museum preserves books, prints, posters, typefaces, printing machinery and many other artefacts documenting the history of the printed word. It now aims to bring this heritage into a broader dialogue with graphic design, comics, video games, logos, advertising, publishing, popular culture and digital practices.
The aim is neither to set historical objects against contemporary creations nor to build a collection of new trends. Rather, it is to bring together visual forms from different periods and across different media, to explore what they have in common, what sets them apart and what they reveal about the ways we communicate, create and live together.
What do we mean by graphic cultures today? The museum does not seek to offer a fixed definition. Instead, it invites visitors to explore the question together: by looking, comparing, handling, experimenting and creating.
2. From the history of printing to graphic cultures
A museum deeply rooted in the history of Lyon
The museum first opened its doors in 1964, thanks to the initiative of three leading figures from the world of books: Maurice Audin, a Lyon-based publisher and master printer; Henri-Jean Martin, a historian of the book and director of the Lyon Municipal Library; and André Jammes, a Parisian bookseller and specialist in typography.
Its location in Lyon was no coincidence. Between the late 15th century and the mid-16th century, the city was one of Europe's major centres for the production and distribution of books, alongside Venice and Basel.
The museum is housed in the former Hôtel de la Couronne, a Renaissance building that served as Lyon's Town Hall in the 17th century. Over the years, its collections have grown to reflect the increasingly diverse uses of print: sharing knowledge, spreading ideas, providing information, persuading, preserving memories and circulating images.
In 2014–2015, as it celebrated its 50th anniversary, the museum became the Musée de l’Imprimerie et de la Communication graphique [Museum of Printing and Graphic Communication]. This new name already marked a shift beyond the history of printing techniques, towards the many forms and uses of visual communication.
The name L’Imprimerie. Musée des Cultures Graphiques [Museum of Graphic Cultures] takes this evolution further. Printing remains the museum's historical foundation, with its techniques, objects and expertise. Graphic cultures open up a much broader field of exploration, bringing together heritage, contemporary creativity and popular culture.
4. Two floors, two ways to explore graphic cultures
The renovation of the building goes hand in hand with a complete redesign of the visitor experience. Spread across two floors, the new displays will gradually lead visitors from the history of printing to the diversity of graphic cultures.
On the first floor, L’Imprimerie
The first floor will be dedicated to the history of printed objects and the major changes they have brought about in society.
From the earliest printing techniques to typographic presses, from calligraphy to industrial printing, the collections will show how societies have developed ways of producing, reproducing and circulating texts and images.
The displays will also explore the different functions of print: sharing knowledge, providing information, persuading, organising knowledge, preserving records and circulating ideas.
The history of printing techniques will thus be connected to the history of the uses to which they have been put and the societies that developed them.
The first floor will also host the museum's temporary exhibitions, regularly offering new perspectives on the collections, graphic practices and their connections with contemporary creativity.
Opening scheduled for autumn 2027, with the first temporary exhibition.
On the second floor, Graphic Cultures
The second floor will offer a broader exploration of the graphic forms that make up our visual environment. Comics, video games, logos, graphic design, flyers, advertising, publishing, media, popular culture and contemporary imagery will enter into dialogue with the historical collections.
A typeface might be compared with a logo; a poster with a book cover, a piece of packaging or a digital interface. These juxtapositions will invite visitors to examine visual forms, understand how they have evolved and explore the grammar of the signs and symbols that surround us.
Typography and graphic design play a central role in this approach. They provide a way of exploring how letters, images, colours and compositions create meaning, direct our gaze and shape our perception of the world.
The displays will not be fixed. Thematic highlights and sections will be regularly renewed, while artist and research residencies will enrich the collections with new perspectives, creative work and knowledge.
Opening scheduled for the first half of 2028.
5. A new visual identity that tells the museum’s story
How do you create a visual identity for a museum devoted to the history of printing, but also to typography, graphic design and popular culture? How can historical references and contemporary visual forms coexist without reducing this diversity to a single style?
To develop its new visual identity, the museum commissioned graphic design studio Syndicat, founded by Sacha Léopold and François Havegeer. This collaboration builds on a relationship developed through several previous projects, including Bijou Bijoux (2022) and Le musée ambulant. Lectures de Miyazaki (2024).
Nine typefaces, three broad families
The new identity is built around a logo with nine variations, using different typefaces drawn from three broad families: historical heritage, graphic design and popular culture.
This diversity reflects the collections and subjects explored by the museum. Typefaces tell stories: they bear witness to a particular period, creative context, technique or use. Some evoke the history of print, while others are associated with graphic movements or familiar references from popular culture.
By varying the typefaces, the identity brings this plurality to life. It allows different histories of graphic design to enter into dialogue and gives the museum room to vary its visual expression according to different subjects, projects and formats, while maintaining a recognisable overall identity.
The logo is therefore not based on a single, definitive form. Instead, it works as an open graphic system, able to evolve and adapt without losing its coherence.
A name that brings two complementary dimensions together
The word musée [museum], given prominence in the visual identity, clearly establishes the nature of the institution. It reminds us that L’Imprimerie is a museum: a place that preserves collections, researches them, exhibits them and shares them with its audiences.
The two parts of the name play complementary roles. L’Imprimerie [The Printing Works] asserts the museum's historical roots, its heritage and its connection with the history of Lyon. Musée des Cultures Graphiques [Museum of Graphic Cultures] defines the broader field it seeks to explore, from historical printed works to contemporary graphic creations.
The visual identity is therefore much more than simply a new look for a new name. It gives tangible form to the museum's ambition: to bring heritage, contemporary creativity and popular culture into dialogue, while raising an essential question: what is a museum today, and what can it be for the people who visit it? It is a question that L’Imprimerie. Musée des Cultures Graphiques [Museum of Graphic Cultures] wishes to explore together with its audiences, making typography and graphic design tools for observation, creation and dialogue.
6. A collective project, brought to life by a wide range of contributors
The transformation of the museum brings together a range of complementary expertise, from heritage conservation to architecture, graphic design and cultural engagement.
The City of Lyon is leading the building renovation project, working with its Construction Department, in collaboration with the Archaeology Department and the Department of Cultural Affairs. The project involves close cooperation with the State services responsible for heritage and archaeology.
The architectural project is led by Atelier ISSHIN, represented by Stéphanie Canellas, heritage architect, together with FERRAND SIGAL as co-architects. Their work includes preserving the architectural features of the former Hôtel de la Couronne [Crown Inn] while adapting the building to the needs of a contemporary museum.
Graphic design studio Syndicat is working with the museum to develop its new visual identity.
The museum team also plays an essential role in designing the future displays, preparing the collections, developing the programme and learning activities, and creating projects with audiences. Artists, graphic designers, typographers, researchers, schools and cultural partners will all contribute to this shared endeavour, notably through residencies, workshops, meetings and projects taking place throughout the year.
This collective dimension lies at the heart of the project: the museum does not simply aim to present graphic cultures, but also to create the conditions for them to be explored, practised, discussed and continually renewed.
7. A living museum, even during the renovation
The temporary closure of the building does not bring the museum's work to a halt. The collections continue to be studied, documented, restored and expanded. The team also continues its learning and engagement activities and off-site cultural projects, working with schools, cultural and community organisations and local partners.
As the building is transformed, the museum continues to thrive throughout the city, engaging with audiences both in person and online, while preparing the new experiences it will offer when it reopens.
8. See you in 2027 and 2028
The change of name marks a new chapter in the museum's history. It goes hand in hand with the renovation of the building, the creation of a renewed visitor experience and the development of a project embracing the diversity of graphic cultures.
- November 2026: Announcement of the new name and visual identity.
- Autumn 2027: Reopening of the first floor, dedicated to L’Imprimerie [Printing], and opening of the first temporary exhibition.
- First half of 2028: Opening of the second floor, dedicated to Graphic Cultures.
