MassArt Art Museum briefed 'no serif, no sans serif' — and got a jagged, breakable logo

MassArt, the first publicly funded freestanding art school in the US, was opening the MassArt Art Museum (MAAM) in February 2020 — a free 'Kunsthalle' with no permanent collection, celebrating contemporary work from video game art to multimedia installations, and meant to inspire the next generation of creatives. It wanted the opposite of the monochrome motifs typical of art institutions.

A workshop consensus — 'no serif, no sans serif' — produced a colourful, jagged-edged logotype that stays alive by breaking apart into a framing device.

Moth Design's response is a colourful, jagged-edged logotype that can be broken apart and used as a framing device — dynamic at avatar scale, expandable to wallpaper backgrounds inside the museum and on promotions. MassArt alumnus Nick Sherman of type foundry HEX created the bespoke MAAM Sans, channelling inscriptional lettering associated with classical museums with a contemporary, literal twist on the dimensional logo. Secondary typefaces Beatrice and Stellar and bright colour combinations used in pairs act as a metaphor for an exciting, unexpected visual conversation.

The identity launched with the museum's public opening in February 2020 and runs from social avatars to in-museum wallpaper, giving a free teaching museum a recognisable, un-stuffy personality ('credibility and gravitas, without feeling stuffy or uninviting'). The source reports no visitor figures.

Most art institutions strip their branding back to let the collection talk. Boston's MassArt Art Museum did the opposite: the new Kunsthalle-style museum wanted its identity to behave like an art piece — surprising, colourful, alive. Local studio Moth Design, founded by Tammy Dayton, took the brief for the February 2020 opening.

In an early visual workshop the MAAM team settled on a memorable constraint for the logo: 'no serif, no sans serif'. Moth's answer is a jagged-edged logotype in bright colours that can be broken apart and redeployed as a framing device — dynamic enough for a social media avatar, expansible to wallpaper backgrounds across the museum and its promotions. 'The logo is alive, just like the spirit of the museum,' says Dayton.

The system extends through type: MassArt alumnus Nick Sherman of foundry HEX drew the bespoke MAAM Sans, whose proportions channel the inscriptional lettering of classical art museums with a contemporary, literal twist playing off the dimensional logo. Secondary typefaces Beatrice and Stellar, and bright colour combinations deployed in pairs, serve as a metaphor for an exciting and unexpected visual conversation — the teaching museum's spirit in typographic form.

A teaching museum for 'imagining the unimagined' needed a personality of surprise; monochrome minimalism would have said the opposite.

The break-apart logo turns the brand itself into an exhibition device — frames, walls and avatars all come from one mark.

Commissioning an alumnus ties the typeface to the school's story and its community.

Paired bright colours formalise unexpectedness as a system rather than decoration.

A negative brief — name what the logo will not be — frees the design: 'no serif, no sans serif' forced a third category of mark that no other museum shares.

MAAM opened free to the public in February 2020 in the renovated Bakalar & Paine Galleries with the identity rolled across wayfinding, promotions and digital. The source article reports no attendance figures.