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The museum of modern art

2015 - Co:Collective
Ethnographic Research/UX design/Creative Strategy/Art Direction/Brand Architecture & Strategy

we helped bring the museum of modern art back to new york & true culture lovers.

it was 2015, bjork was about to launch her retrospective, and moma came to us with a challenge – to bring one of the most globally iconic museums back to the city, and true culture lovers.

THE CHALLENGE
THE DISCOVERY
THE OUTCOME 
❋ THE CHALLENGE

MoMA and MoMA PS1 had drifted apart — in perception, in identity, and in the experienceS they offered.

MoMA was perceived as the old, iconic, slightly intimidating tourist institution. PS1, its contemporary counterpart, read as cool but futile. They were always meant to be one unified brand. They had simply stopped feeling that way.

❋ THE CHALLENGE

At the same time, the museums’ visitor experience had grown fragmented and hard to navigate.

A new generation of culture lovers — New York artists, young creatives, families, international visitors — were finding it genuinely difficult to move through MoMA's complex interior with any sense of fluidity.

The problem wasn't the art itself – it was the experience around it.

❋ THE DISCOVERY

TO DIRECT OR DECISIONS, I went into the field — shadowing five distinct visitor personas and mapped their entire MoMA experience, THE KEY INSIGHTS AND PAIN POINTS THAT WOULD DRIVE OUR WORK forward. 

❋ THE CORE INSIGHTS

  • MoMA's public face was almost entirely exhibition-focused. The depth and breadth of what the museum actually held — its collection, its history, its range — was invisible online. People arrived without any real sense of what they were walking into.

  • The website didn't allow visitors to plan or customise their visit in any meaningful way. It was hard to filter by interest, hard to understand what was currently on, and hard to build any sense of anticipation before arrival.

  • On arrival, the experience immediately focused on logistics — bags, coats, money, queues. There was no orientation, no sense of being introduced to the space or guided toward what mattered. The museum greeted people with friction before it greeted them with art.

  • Once inside, the signage was confusing and the interior complex. There was no easy way to understand what was on offer before entering a gallery, and no visible access to talks or events happening that day. People — including frequent visitors — regularly felt lost.

  • Visitors wanted more than information. They wanted interpretation — curators' intentions, the why behind how work was placed, the ideas and movements connecting what they were seeing. That layer simply wasn't accessible.

  • After leaving, there was no clear next step. An overwhelming email list and no meaningful way to stay connected to MoMA beyond the physical visit. The relationship ended where the visit did — and it didn't have to.

❋ THE OUTCOME

we ❋ designed a new brand architecture for how moma could show up and ❋ built it into the end to end visitor’s experience.

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❋ We catalyzed innovation in the visitor and member experience.
❋ We created a new brand architecture and naming system, simplifying how people navigate MoMA’s locations and offerings.
❋ We then helped MoMA form a series of cross-department innovation team to ideate and implement new visitor experiences. The first wave of innovations rolled out in 2015 – focused on building a responsive visitor experience, deepening membership programs and engaging New York City visitors and artists.
❋ This effort has also led to an ongoing conversation on how machine learning might intersect with modern and contemporary art.