The Museum of Bristol project will undergo major rebranding when it opens to the public.

We revealed the delayed and overspent £26 million project would be called M-Shed last month, but there's more to that than just a new name.

The 'M' will be used to house descriptions of exhibits or information about the museum.

It is hoped the new branding, much like the summer Banksy exhibition, will attract a whole new audience who wouldn't otherwise go to museums, by taking a modern approach to the past.

Acting head of the museum service Paul Barnett said: "There are people who never go to museums.

"We want people to feel this is a new and exciting place to go."

Mr Barnett said M-Shed is part of a modernisation of the service and will reflect more of Bristol's history than ever before.

Staff have been speaking to communities so the contents will reflect what they want to see in a modern museum.

He said there will be more radical history, and a greater reflection of Bristol's increasing racial diversity.

Bristol City Council has provided more details about the origin of the M-Shed name, after it was criticised for appearing to take the decision behind closed doors.

It was the original name for the building the project will be based in, and was chosen by the local authority.

A shortlist of names was chosen from suggestions by museum staff.

No public announcement was made that the council was looking to rename the project.

Instead the shortlist was tested in July last year with an online survey of 150 Bristol residents, an audience focus group and the project's public advisory group.

Asked why the wider public wasn't involved in the process, Mr Barnett said: "It's a question of capacity.

"If you open everything to debate we wouldn't have time to build the new museum.

"We felt the most important thing was developing the museum's content."

The authority says the clear favourite name was M-Shed, although research showed there were concerns that not having museum in the title could cause problems.

A strap line will be used in the first year or two after the planned opening in 2011 to explain what M-Shed is about until the name becomes more widely recognised.

After coming up with the name, the council paid a Manchester-based company called True North £73,200 to rebrand the museum service as a whole and come up with these designs.

Funding came from the national Renaissance in the Regions scheme, though ultimately it is all taxpayers' money.

The rebranding covers six buildings, the Museum of Bristol, City Museum, Blaise Castle, Red Lodge, Georgian House and the Bristol Record Office.

All could see new names, although they aren't expected to be as radical a departure as M-Shed.

True North's remit includes staff uniforms for M-Shed and the City Museum, promotional leaflets for the service as a whole, templates for stationery and examples of how the branding can be used to promote museums to schools and families.