Responses by Leo Porto and Felipe Rocha, cofounders, PORTO ROCHA.
Background: The Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP, São Paulo Museum of Art) is regarded as the most important art museum in the Southern Hemisphere. With a historic expansion opening in 2025, the museum needed an identity system that could honor its legacy while growing with the institution—bridging the physical and digital, past and future. The target audience was broad: locals, tourists, art lovers and newcomers alike. The goal was to make MASP feel accessible, inclusive and undeniably present in both the city and the cultural conversation.
Design thinking: We wanted to build a system that reflected MASP’s iconic architecture and modernist legacy, while offering clarity, consistency and adaptability across platforms. The identity had to be bold enough to make an impact in São Paulo’s urban landscape while flexible enough to translate across signage, digital interfaces and merchandise. We designed very element, from the custom wordmark and typography to the layout and motion system, to unify the museum’s two buildings and all its brand expressions under one cohesive voice.
Challenges: The most challenging aspect of the project was navigating its own tensions—retaining its legacy with evolution, combining its Brazilian roots with a global presence, and elevating the experience while maintaining an accessible and inviting atmosphere. MASP holds a deep cultural weight in Brazil, so every change had to be appropriate to its rich history as a modernist icon. We had to update core elements, like MASP’s signature red color, without losing what made the museum iconic in the first place.
Favorite details: One detail we’re very proud of is the graphic symbol representing the two buildings. It’s a simple but powerful device that telegraphically encapsulates the museum’s transformation: the horizontal red form represents the Lina Building and the vertical black form represents the new Pietro building.
Visual influences: The identity pays homage to Brazilian modernist design. When transforming the brand equities, we drew inspiration from figures like Augusto de Campo, Aloísio Magalhães, Cauduro Martino, Alexandre Wollner and Mary Vieira. The updated logo reflects the museum’s architecture, incorporating block-like, rectilinear forms to align with the brutalist style of Lina Bo Bardi’s building. In developing our motion identity, we also took inspiration from Bo Bardi’s glass easel system to create a system that responds to and evolves with the collection.
Time constraints: The identity was launched in parallel with the opening of the museum’s new building. We had to be highly intentional with every decision so we focused on solutions that were bold, clear and scalable from the start in order to make the system more focused and efficient.
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