MASP (The Museu de Arte de São Paulo) is regarded as the most important art museum in the Southern Hemisphere. Designed by Lina Bo Bardi and inaugurated in 1968, their building is celebrated as a masterpiece of modern architecture and has become both cultural landmark and meeting point on the bustling Avenida Paulista.

With a collection of nearly 10,000 works spanning continents, cultures, and centuries—from Raphael and Picasso to self-taught Brazilian artists like Maria Auxiliadora and Agostinho Batista de Freitas—MASP brings together the icons you know and the voices you should. More than preserving history, the museum is redefining it: expanding the narrative, challenging conventions, and making space for a broader, more inclusive vision of art. In 2024, MASP was the second most searched art institution on Google, underscoring their significance in the global art world.

But the museum had more growth on the horizon. With a historic expansion (the new Pietro Maria Bardi building) set to open in 2025, MASP needed an identity that could grow with them. Our solution is a design system that honors MASP’s legacy while looking firmly toward the future. The identity bridges the museum’s physical and digital experiences into one unified story, reinforcing the institution as a symbol of São Paulo — a brand that makes paulistanos proud to call MASP their own.

At its core, the identity pays homage to Brazilian modernist design—drawing inspiration from figures like Alexandre Wollner, Aloísio Magalhães, Mary Vieira, Augusto de Campo, and Cauduro Martino—but reinterpreted for 2025. The transformation began with key brand equities, most notably the MASP wordmark. The updated logo better reflects the museum's architecture, incorporating block-like, rectilinear forms to align with the brutalist style of Lina Bo Bardi's building. This approach also extends into a modular layout grid system that adapts to various formats and touchpoints.

To further reinforce the connection between brand and architecture, we created a new iconic graphic element to illustrate the renovated museum complex in a telegraphic way. The abstract representation of the two buildings side by side (one red, one black) becomes a symbol for the new era of the institution.
The museum's first motion identity language plays with scale contrasts and fluid movement. We looked to Lina Bo Bardi’s glass easel system for inspiration, a defining feature of the museum which allows the interior architecture to respond to and evolve with the collection.

We also redesigned MASP’s website with a unified visual language that brings clarity and consistency to every page. The modular design system powers a more intuitive, accessible website — streamlining the user journey through restructured information architecture. Interactive motion brings rhythm and delight, turning browsing into a more dynamic engagement with the museum’s world.

New copy lines help reinforce the museum as a democratic destination. “A gente se encontra no MASP” (We meet at MASP) speaks to their role as a meeting point: a place where people come together and encounter art on their own terms; “Dois Prédios. Um Museu.” (Two buildings. One Museum.) underscores the continuity of MASP as a unified institution for all.

Launched in parallel with the new building, the rebrand became a city-wide event, sparking conversation and even hitting the front page of the two largest newspapers in Brazil. Inside the museum, bold signage, dynamic digital screens, and clear messaging brought the new identity to life. Outside, giant displays and banners announcing the new MASP were impossible to miss along Avenida Paulista.

Uniting old and new, physical and digital, artists and public, the new identity carries MASP’s cultural legacy forward, allowing them to own their role as both local landmark and global force in the decades to come.