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MoMA Design Studio

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“Why is this art?” is a question often asked by viewers of contemporary art. It is virtually impossible to answer it without referring to the work of Marcel Duchamp. Featuring over 300 artworks, this exhibition marks the first retrospective of the artist’s work in the United States since 1973.

To signal this momentous occasion, our design for the title wall takes over the entire entryway of MoMA’s sixth-floor galleries. The main wall features an enormous photograph, Five-Way Portrait of Marcel Duchamp, which introduces audiences to the artist’s likeness and enigmatic personality, and his proclivity for creating various alter egos, such as Rrose Sélavy.

Various graphics throughout the exhibition give context to his multifaceted work: details about elements contained within the Large Glass, translations of his notes from the Green Box, and the replication of his famous readymades. Each touchpoint allows visitors to learn about Duchamp’s work with greater depth.

Inspired by Duchamp’s own graphic design practice, we also created a set of exhibition posters. Made with the same bold approach as the title wall, we featured different artworks, ensuring something for every Duchamp aficionado.

Curatorial team: Ann Temkin, Michelle Kuo, Lo Drexelius, and Helena Klevorn; Exhibition design: Aimee Keefer, Cindy Chong, Melanie Spiel; Graphic design and production: @momadesignstudio; Typography: Basel Grotesk by Optimo Foundry; Screenprinting: Crown Prints; Vinyl: @artworldsign. taken in MoMA The Museum of Modern Art by @momadesignstudio

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2 months ago

For the first US retrospective of Marcel Duchamp in 50 years, we let the artist’s famously provocative art speak for itself. The exhibition campaign features some of his best known works, such as the readymade sculpture Fountain, while introducing audiences to less-known pieces from his multifaceted career. Through bold, yet restrained, graphics, succinct copy, and repetition—inviting viewers to literally do a double take—we took inspiration from Duchamp’s own creative attitude.

Creative direction and design: @momadesignstudio; Motion: Wooyoung Kim by @momadesignstudio

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2 months ago

Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination explores the role of photography in shaping identity, self-determination, and imagination across the African continent and its diaspora.

The graphic identity for the exhibition operates as both a spatial threshold and a conceptual framework. Drawing from the graphic languages of the pan-African airline Air Afrique, DRUM and Balafon magazines, and Jean Depara’s photograph Le Progrès (The Progress), the identity draws on ideas of movement, modernity, possibility, and transformation.

Built around the idea of propulsion, the title uses a heavyweight, sharply angled sans-serif to create typographic mass and directional force. The large over-slanted italicized letterforms push forward across the dark brown wall, extending the typography through the glass partition, activating the exhibition threshold and considering the Museum’s architecture within the design. The subtitle introduces a sharply contrasting weight and scale, creating a deliberate tension between the two typographic voices, with each playing a distinct role and part.

Within the galleries, the spatial design uses facing walls to establish a framework for a multi-generational body of photographic work to unfold, allowing photographs to engage in dialogue across the space. In the reading area, slanted Ideas of Africa stickers are applied to the curated publications, extending the graphic identity beyond the title wall.

Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination is on view at MoMA through the end of this week. See it before it closes.

Curatorial team: Oluremi C. Onabanjo @oluremi.onabanjo and Chiara Mannarino; Exhibition design: MoMA ED&P, Montana Gray and Lana Hum; Graphic design and production: @momadesignstudio; Typography: Futura Now Headline by @bymonotype and Fakt Normal by @typeby_com; Title application: MoMA and @top_notch_graphics_nyc; Screenprinting: @crownprintsnyc; Vinyl: @artworldsign;
Photographs by MoMA Imaging & Visual Resources and Alycia Kravitz @alyciakravitzstudio by @momadesignstudio

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3 months ago

MoMA’s Artist Party series highlights and celebrates the work of artists on view and their ideas through artist-led programming, art making, performances, DJ sets, and more.

For this series, we created a mini-identity to reflect the fresh, social energy of Artist Parties and define them as uniquely MoMA. Neon colors, dynamic layouts, and party photography communicate the vibrant programming of the events. The system is flexible enough to accommodate multiple iterations, while varying colors and image treatments allow each individual party to feel distinctive. This mini-identity is used on-site during the event as well as in promotional materials for the series.

Don’t miss the fun—join us at the next Artist Party! Get details at moma.org/artistparty. by @momadesignstudio

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4 months ago

This exhibition features one of the last remaining capsules from The Nakagain Capsule Tower in Tokyo. The building, demolished in 2022, was an example of Metabolism—a Japanese architectural movement whose members believed that buildings could adapt over time.

MoMA’s capsule, A1305, anchors the exhibition and is visible to passersby on 53rd street. To pique their curiosity, we worked with the curatorial team to design a street-facing prompt that shares the history and significance of the capsule and invites them in with a question, “would you live here?”

Inside the museum, a bold title wall draws visitors in via a crowded lobby. The rounded typography is inspired by the capsule, and textured vinyl on the title wall directly references the capsule’s stucco-like exterior. Throughout the exhibition, the design balances English and Japanese titles as a respectful gesture to the building’s origin.

Curatorial team: Evangelos Kotsioris, Paula Vilaplana de Miguel, Joëlle Martin; Exhibition design: Jamaal Hooker, Cindy Chong; Design and production: @momadesignstudio; Typography: Baste A (@lifttype) and Noto Sans (@googlefonts); Silkscreening: @crownprintsnyc; Vinyl & image reproduction: @artworldsign @top_notch_graphics_nyc taken in MoMA The Museum of Modern Art by @momadesignstudio

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8 months ago

Ruth Asawa believed there was no separation between living and making art. Throughout the campaign, we stuck to one core belief: let Asawa’s work speak for itself—show, don’t tell.

The visuals of the campaign lean into negative space and scale. Artwork details invite close looking and share new perspectives of each pieces’ materiality and construction. Works trail off the page mysteriously and organically to entice viewers.

In early planning, we knew that showing Asawa’s iconic sculptures in the round would be essential to showing the true nature and intricacy of the works, but also to capture the breathtaking experience of visitors walking among them. We wanted to share the beauty of the galleries as an invitation for prospective visitors to see for themselves what new angles could be discovered.

Creative direction and design: @momadesignstudio; Video: Sarah Cowan, Liz Yong Lowe, @bradv_dp, @nooo__worries; Motion: @hi.wooyjoy; Photography: @n_kubota taken in MoMA The Museum of Modern Art by @momadesignstudio

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8 months ago

Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective, featuring over 300 artworks, highlighted her lifelong explorations of different mediums and materials, and role as a multifaceted artist, educator, and advocate.

The entryway was inspired by Asawa’s exploration of negative and positive space, and the idea of the never ending line that was ever present in her work. Suggesting the edge of a sculptural form, visitors simultaneously enter into the sculpture, the exhibition, and Asawa’s world.  
The interior galleries were installed to invoke how home and family inspired Asawa, as well as her educational spirit. Works hang in the air and are laid out for close looking. Our team created icons, drawn from the visual language of Asawa’s own illustrations, to help visitors navigate the show. In a room dedicated to her teaching practice, replicas of her worksheets and public commissions are available for visitors to interact with. The design for this exhibition was inspired by Asawa’s own ethos, for whom there was no separation between living and making art.

Curatorial team: Cara Manes, Dominika Tylcz; Exhibition design: Hiroko Ishikawa, Cindy Chong, Boris Chesakov; Graphic design and production @momadesignstudio; Typography: Perfektta by Displaay Foundry; Screenprinting: Crown Prints; Vinyl: @artworldsign. taken in MoMA The Museum of Modern Art by @momadesignstudio

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8 months ago

MoMA PS1’s Warm Up returns with a graphic identity inspired by heat—not just the sweat of summer, but the intensity of music, dance, and collective energy. Thermochromic shifts from yellow to deep red evoke the slow burn of a summer evening, set against a grey backdrop drawn from the concrete walls of PS1’s courtyard.

This year’s Warm Up invites audiences to chart the future of electronic and underground sound every Friday evening from 4–10 p.m., welcoming all ages to dance, listen, and gather. The courtyard transforms with a new stage designed by NYC-based artist and musician Jeffrey Joyal, set beneath Yto Barrada’s monumental installation “Le Grand Soir”.

Learn more and get tickets: momaps1.org/warmup 🫠

Curatorial team: Kari Rittenbach, Nick Scavo, Sheldon Gooch; Design and production: @MoMAPS1, Samara Keller @kellersamara; Typography: Berton Hasebe, HB Type @hbtype; Photography: Nathan Bajar, John Kim, Julia Schäfer by @momadesignstudio

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a year ago

Jack Whitten experimented relentlessly with materials and art-making techniques. In the 1970s he created a tool he called the “Developer,” a rake-like device that he used to drag paint across the surface of his canvases. We were inspired by this sense of motion which felt symbolic of his creative approach, and set out to capture this feeling in the entrance by staggering the exhibition title, and including photographs that capture the breadth of Whitten’s life—a snapshot of him using the “Developer”, a closeup of the varied materials in his studio, and a portrait in New York City where he worked from the 1960s onward.

Inside the gallery, the quotes above every section text introduce visitors to Whitten’s perspective. To build on this further in the marketing campaign we selected key quotes and paired them with artwork details for social media, and showed a breadth of images for digital screens in the subway. Together, the advertising introduces Whitten to new audiences by presenting his voice and highlighting the experimentation of his six-decade long career.

Curatorial team: Michelle Kuo, Helena Klevorn, Dana Liljegren, David Sledge, with thanks to JaBrea Patterson-West, Kiko Aebi, Eana Kim; Exhibition design: Aimee Keefer; Design and production: @momadesignstudio, Paulette Giguerre; Typography: AG Book (designed by Günter Gerhard Lange, published by Berthold); Silkscreening: @crownprintsnyc; Vinyl & image reproduction: @artworldsign; Exhibition photos: Jonathan Dorado, Imaging and Visual Resources by @momadesignstudio

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a year ago

CAMP, a collaborative artists’ studio in Mumbai, India, draws on widely available technologies—including CCTV, cell phone cameras, and the internet—to rethink our relationship with the technologies that constantly capture us. As we set out to design the exhibition, we asked ourselves: What design can signal CAMP’s practice of institutional intervention and critique, as well as express the playfulness of their approach?

We arrived at a provocation: What if the design of this show staged an intervention into the institution of MoMA itself? Our answer was “MoMA Wrong”, a bootlegged version of MoMA’s own institutional typeface, MoMA Sans, featuring upside-down and swapped letters. This hijacked typeface disrupts the institutional typography throughout the show, and also serves as a cheeky nod to CAMP’s own DIY typeface, “Wrong Font”, which appears across their public archives.

The animated title wall flickers between MoMA Sans and “MoMA Wrong”, in sync with a motion graphic that cycles through a selection of “backronyms”—backend acronyms CAMP procedurally generated to expand the possibilities of their name. Set against a gray drawn from cargo ships featured in one of the artworks, the exhibition identity employs highlight colors inspired by digital interfaces and archives, which are carried through in the gallery section texts.

As a further nod to CAMP’s strategy of co-opting existing infrastructure, we removed select sound panels in the exhibition and inserted the section texts directly into the openings—embedding the design directly into the infrastructure of the installation.

“Video After Video: The Critical Media of CAMP” is on view at MoMA through Jul 20—don’t miss it!

Curatorial team: Stuart Comer, Lilia Taboada, Rattan Singh Johal; Exhibition design: Hiroko Ishikawa; Design and production: @momadesignstudio; Typography: custom MoMA Wrong by @momadesignstudio, MoMA Sans; Screenprinting: @crownprintsnyc; Vinyl: @artworldsign; Photography: @iris.eel taken in MoMA The Museum of Modern Art by @momadesignstudio

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a year ago

Throughout the 20th century, artists have imagined the body and ideas of the self as fluid and open to ongoing transformations. The exhibition Vital Signs: Artists and the Body included over 100 works by artists who’ve questioned what we think we know about our physical selves and our place in the world.

For the exhibition identity we wanted to create a feeling of energy and movement, and embody a design that was gender-expansive, bold and full of life. The entryway for the exhibition was painted in an active yellow with green undertones. The bright color made a statement—catching visitors’ attention and setting a mood when entering the space. The strong title was set in Girott and painted in two contrasting metallic colors, a warm deep brown and a silver-blue. We opted for metallic as this activated the type by making it responsive to the light in the space and to the position of the viewer, creating a feeling of constant movement. The texts throughout the exhibition were set in Jungka, a warm and rhythmical font that helped establish an inviting atmosphere for the exhibition.

The artwork that spanned the loggia walls, Misdirected Kiss by artist Martine Syms, was produced by MoMA Design Studio to especially fit this space. The work originated as a performative lecture where Syms told a story about movement, gesture, and language through observations about Black female performers both in the media and her own life.

Curatorial team: Lanka Tattersall @lankatatters, Margarita Lizcano Hernandez @margaritalizca; Exhibition design: Aimee Keefer; Graphic design @momadesignstudio, Minhwan Kim @mhk.mhk.mhk.mhk.mhk; Production: @momadesignstudio; Typography: Girott by Radim Pesko @radimpesko, Jungka by Karel Martens and Jungmyung Lee @jung_lee_type_foundry; Misdirected Kiss by @martinesyms; Production title wall: Paulette Giguere; Screenprinting: @crownprintsnyc; Vinyl: @artworldsign by @momadesignstudio

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a year ago

In “Designer’s Choice: Norman Teague—Jam Sessions,” Norman Teague invites us to reimagine the past by moving beyond “good modern design” as defined by institutions like MoMA. Teague balances reverence for design innovation with an acknowledgment of the power dynamics that shaped it. As in a musical jam session, Teague’s curatorial choices and design explorations ask “what if,” creating space for us to contemplate both the past and the future.

The title wall takes a cue from Teague’s signature design style, bringing in the familiar shapes and materials of his multidisciplinary practice. The plywood elements mirror the curved divider that is the focal point of the exhibition space, and brings dimension and texture into a playful composition.

Curatorial team: Norman Teague, Paul Galloway; Exhibition Design: LJ McNerney; Design and production: @momadesignstudio; Typography: Marr Sans by Commercial Type; Screenprinting: Crown Prints; AI Prompt Posters: Norman Teague Design Studios taken in MoMA The Museum of Modern Art by @momadesignstudio

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a year ago