Athletics creates a flexible toolkit to engage MoMA’s young visitors

When MoMA’s School & Teacher Program approached Brooklyn-based brand innovation studio Athletics, the challenge was immediate: how do you make one of the world’s most prestigious art institutions feel approachable for young learners without diluting its gravitas? The answer lay in creating a tactile design system that celebrates personal expression while maintaining the museum’s signature aesthetic. “The brief was to build a cohesive and long-lasting identity that appeals to teachers, learning specialists and students,” explains Sun Ho Lee, Designer at Athletics. “With more and more students coming through MoMA’s doors, the team needed a flexible toolkit to keep them engaged: posters, worksheets, brochures, social content, all of it.” Athletics’ solution centres on a layered approach that transforms MoMA’s typically pristine presentation into something students can interact with directly. The system preserves MoMA Sans and the institution’s blocky motifs whilst introducing three distinct layers of personality: doodles, stickers and conversational text that can scale from quiet to bold depending on the audience. “Museums, with towering white walls and a lot of ‘don’t touch’ signs, can feel intimidating, especially for younger visitors,” Lee notes. “We really wanted to flip that. The goal was to help students feel like they belong there, like the museum was speaking their language.” The doodle layer ranges from aimless squiggles and brush strokes to more structured, straight-line patterns, reflecting different personalities and energy levels. The sticker applications draw from familiar emoji culture – fire, sparkle, heart, pizza – but with hand-drawn quirks like Frida Kahlo eyebrows or subtle nods to iconic MoMA artwork. This flexibility emerged from Athletics' embedded research approach. The team shadowed student tours and interviewed learning specialists to understand how different groups interact with the space. “What we saw was that no two groups are the same: some are laser-focused, others are delightfully chaotic, and some are deeply curious,” Lee observes. “That variety shaped our thinking. We knew the system had to flex to meet students where they are.”