Frontify presents: PORTO ROCHA and MASP discuss rebranding cultural legacy

Welcome to The Dialogue, a series presented in collaboration with one of the world’s leading brand-management platforms, Frontify. Here, we are exploring the collaborative relationships behind exceptional brand work through paired conversations with creative partners, revealing how studios and clients work together to produce transformative results. For this conversation, we sat down with both PORTO ROCHA and MASP to discuss their partnership in rebranding Brazil’s most important art museum. What emerged was a story of how personal connection, cultural understanding and mutual trust can navigate the complexities of updating a beloved national institution – and how the strongest collaborations create lasting impact beyond the initial brief. When PORTO ROCHA received the call to rebrand MASP, the project carried weight that extended far beyond typical client work. Both founding partners, Felipe Rocha and Leo Porto, had grown up visiting the institution, making this collaboration deeply personal before it became professional. The Museu de Arte de São Paulo wasn’t just another cultural brief – it was a landmark that had shaped their understanding of art and design from childhood. The introduction came through creative consultant Rony Rodrigues, but both sides agree the real connection happened during their first face-to-face meeting. “Both Leo and I were in São Paulo visiting family at the time, so got to meet the entire team in person and tour the new building which was still under construction,” Rocha recalls. “That face-to-face meeting was essential for both sides to feel it would be a good fit.” For MASP, the chemistry was immediate: “Trust, personality and creativity were what first connected the museum and PORTO ROCHA,” Communications Coordinator Priscila Asche tells us, “these traits showed up right from our early meetings and became the foundation of our relationship.”