A New Chapter for MUUS Collection

MUUS Collection has unveiled a new visual identity and digital platform designed to rethink how photography archives are experienced online, expanding access to its holdings, and broadening public engagement with the archives under its care.

MUUS Collection enlisted the award-winning Atelier Dyakova to create a new visual identity for the collection, which focuses on American 20th century photography archives, including documentary, street, portraiture, and social observation by photographers such as Larry Fink, Rosalind Fox Solomon and Deborah Turbeville. Through extensive archival research, Atelier Dyakova conceptualized a design that incorporates archival photographic elements, colors, and textures, with a modern edge, proving that vintage photography remains a relevant part of visual culture today.

The redesign comes at a pivotal moment for MUUS Collection, on the heels of a major acquisition of the Todd Webb Archive, and with multiple museum exhibitions underway.

“As MUUS Collection expands its holdings, we are excited to transform these important and historic archives by bringing them into a modern context through this redesign,” says Michael W. Sonnenfeldt, founder of MUUS Collection.

With the appointment of Sophie Wright as Executive Director in 2025, the direction for MUUS Collection has placed a renewed emphasis on accessibility to the collections, through the new digital platform, in tandem with continued development of exhibitions, books and programming with leading international partners.

“The MUUS Collection is a unique private collection,” says Sophie Wright. “We are delighted to be working with Atelier Dyakova, a studio known for its outstanding work in book publishing and brand identity, to develop a visual language that reflects the richness of the archives while making the collection more accessible.”

Wright enlisted creative and brand strategist Anne Bourgeois-Vignon to help lead the project, who brought MUUS Collection to Atelier Dyakova.

“The enduring materiality of photography became central to our approach,” says Sonya Dyakova, Creative Director of Atelier Dyakova. “Not only the collection’s iconic images, which are time capsules in their own right, but also the wider world of archives, printed matter, and the atmosphere they exude. What inspired us most was the human quality of the archive itself — the textures and traces of time embedded within analogue photography and its ephemera. At its origin, photography is an alchemy of matter and light, transforming fleeting moments into enduring images. We wanted the identity to feel confident, even grand, honoring the cultural significance and lasting vitality of the collection while bringing a contemporary sensibility to the collection.”

The MUUSEUM Research Portal, which will make digitally accessible the collection’s holdings, is running in beta form and will launch in full this November, to coincide with an exhibition of the Todd Webb Archive at this year’s edition of Paris Photo, and the announcement of the new MUUS Collection Research Fellow, who will be invited to develop an exhibition or publication concept based on works within the collection.

As MUUS Collection continues in its goal to preserve, research, and reveal work from the archives in its care, the redesign by Atelier Dyakova shines a new light on the collection, creating new pathways for exploration and engagement with its holdings.