Moody Moore and Partners, the Winnipeg-based architectural firm now known as MMP Architects, traces its roots to 1936, when Herbert Moody and Robert Moore formed Moody Moore Architects. The firm expanded through mergers over the following decades, and in 1969, after merging with Duncan Rattray Peters and Searle and adding senior employee Jim Christie, the partnership became known as Moody Moore Partners, a shortened form of its full legal name. The firm later adopted the MMP Architects name. [1]
Design and History
Documentation of a 1966 logo for Moody Moore and Partners designed by James Cross could not be verified in available sources. James Cross, a Los Angeles-based graphic designer, opened Cross Associates in 1963 and built a reputation for corporate identity and annual report design, with clients including Northrop, Southern California Edison and Carter Hawley Hale. [2] [3] However, no primary or archival source connects Cross to Moody Moore and Partners specifically, and the firm’s own history does not mention a 1966 logo or an external identity designer. [4]
The firm’s visual identity history is therefore not well documented in public sources. The Archives of Manitoba, which holds the MMP Architects fonds, provides a detailed administrative history of the firm but does not describe any logo or mark from the 1960s or any other period. [1]
Meaning and Symbolism
No documented symbolism, color specifications or design rationale for a Moody Moore and Partners logo could be located in the available research. Claims about geometric forms, stability or partnership as intentional design messages for this mark are not supported by any primary source.
What is documented is the firm’s identity evolution through naming: the 1969 merger produced the unwieldy name Moody Moore Duncan Rattray Peters Searle and Christie, which was shortened in practice to Moody Moore Partners, and later to MMP Architects. [1] This naming history, rather than any documented visual redesign, is the clearest identity-related event in the firm’s record.
Logo Index is an independent educational archive covering logos, visual identities and graphic design history. All trademarks and brand assets remain the property of their respective owners.
