Sparking the ideas, chasing the sources, finding the angle, shaping the story. Feature writing allows me to expand the scale and complexity of the stories I tell. For Dance Studio Life I've written on dance teacher tech, a glitzy Hollywood charity event, modern dance styles, DIY brochures, studio owner couples who make it work in business and life, and more.
A Community Takes Care of Its Own
Scaring Up a New Seasonal Show
Generous Heart Awards: Juan Carlos Claudio
All designs shown © Dance Studio Life / Mim Adkins
"It is the spectators who make the pictures."—Marcel Duchamp
What would a museum be without an audience? Not much of a museum, really. A museum is more than galleries filled with art, or the people who work there—what's also crucial is each spectator's individual experience with art.
In 2011 we were tasked with coming up with an evergreen institutional campaign for MoMA to add to our exhibition-specific campaigns. The result was this audience engagement project, which we called "I went to MoMA and...".
In the lobby, notecards and pencils were provided, and visitors were encouraged to write or draw whatever they wished about their day at MoMA. Museum staffers then hung the cards on the wall—to the visitors' delight! Our visitors seemed eager to share, and the cards that poured in astonished us with their creativity, poetry, depth, hilarity, and profound love for art. Out of the rich material of our visitors' experiences, we crafted a simple yet elegant campaign of print, digital, and outdoor placements, including a website with digitized (and easily shareable) note cards.
The campaign got attention and some awards, but could not gain us the respect of a certain young Annabelle, who left outraged that she did not see a dinosaur.... (That card, one of our favorites, went viral.)
Visit the website
Read blog posts about the project
Project Team: Julia Hoffmann (creative direction), Brigitta Bungard (art direction, design), Tamsin Nutter (copy, phase 1), Jocelyn Meinhardt (copy, phase 2), Althea Penza (print production), Wendy Olson (advertising production), Jaki Levy (website design), POKE New York (lobby interface production and design).
Photos: Brigitta Bungard, Martin Seck, Tammy Shell
Awards & Press:
Webby 'People's Voice' Award: Mobile & Experience Marketing
American Association of Museums (AAM) Gold Muse Award
Featured in “Participatory Design” in Design 360°– Concept and Design Magazine; "Sensation–Theme Promo & Campaign," Sandu Publishing; Identity of Cultural Institutions 2013, Gestalten Publishers; and The World's Best Graphics—Choi Gallery Vol. 21, 2013, Choi's Publishing.
Presentation: Communicating the Museum 2011, Düsseldorf
For the major exhibition Abstract Expressionist New York, the MoMA marketing team pulled out all the stops. The Abstract Expressionists were a wild and charismatic bunch, and we decided to play upon their outsize personalities and on their relationship to the New York City of the 1940s and 50s in our campaign. Copywriter Todd Lamb contributed the concept of using powerful quotes by the artists, and we took off running from there. I wrote, researched, helped strategize, edited, and proofread the major part of the copy associated with this campaign.
Deliverables included a website, an interactive Google map, outdoor, digital banner ads, a video trailer, brochures, postcards, radio spots, bar coasters (a nod to the AbEx artists' notorious bar-hopping ways)—and of course, an iPad app, MoMA's first.
Watch the trailer here.
Project Team: Julia Hoffmann (creative direction), August Heffner (art direction, design, video), Samuel Sherman (design), Melanie Malkin (production), Claire Corey (production), Allegra Burnette (interactive creative direction), David Hart (video), Shannon Darrough (website), Deep Focus (iPad app), Matt Van Ekeren (video animation)
Photos: Martin Seck, Colossal Media
Awards:
AIGA 365: Design Effectiveness 2011
Print Regional Design Annual 2011
How better to advertise a print exhibition than with a newsprint broadsheet?
The MoMA marketing team had a small budget to promote two print exhibitions on view around the same time: German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse and Impressions from South Africa: 1965 to Now. Our solution was to get old-school and print a two-color portfolio on peach newsprint, distributed not just in the exhibition but in coffee shops around the city. The powerful imagery (naturally) reproduced fantastically in this format, and designer Jesse Reed really created an impactful thing of beauty. I wrote copy and collaborated on the layout of the dense-packed central spread, which leavened the usual promotional info (exhibition descriptions, catalogue info, tickets and hours) with a historical timeline, quotes, and a handy guide to different kinds of printmaking. A very fun project, and one we were all proud of in the end.
Hyperallergic liked it: "It’s a potent combination of medium and content."
Project Team: Julia Hoffmann (creative direction), Brigitta Bungard (art direction), Jesse Reed (design), Claire Corey (production)
Photos: Martin Seck
In 2010, I served as editorial project manager and writer for AbExNY, The Museum of Modern Art’s very first iPad app, produced by the Museum and designed and developed by Deep Focus.
This enormously fun project involved outside vendors, artist estates, and multiple MoMA departments; months of design and research and weeks of fact-checking and QA; and a complex approval and production schedule pegged to ambitious deadlines. We were very proud of the final app, and of the awards and excellent reviews garnered by its elegance, substance, and attention to detail.
Winner, Museums and the Web 2011, Best of the Web, Mobile
Winner, Webby Awards 2011, Mobile, Lifestyle: Tablets & All Other Devices
“MoMA's new Abstract Expressionist app achieves symbiosis with the iPad: if you’re an art enthusiast with an iPad, consider this app a must-download.”—PC Magazine
Digital opens so many doors for creative and effective communication. Still, there's no substitute for the satisfaction of print. A well-designed and well-written piece, beautifully printed on heavy paper, begs to be picked up and pocketed—and read, and remembered.
Shown, from top:
VIP Tours Buckslip, The Museum of Modern Art (New York). Designer: Jesse Reed, Art Director: Julia Hoffmann.
Holiday Gift Membership Package, MoMA. Designer: Brigitta Bungard, Art Director: Julia Hoffmann.
Exhibition Postcard for Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913–1917, MoMA. Art Director: Julia Hoffmann.
New Member Acquisition Outsert for Metro and AMNY newspapers, MoMA. Designer: Samuel Sherman, Art Director: Julia Hoffmann.
At Dance Studio Life, I've managed multiple departments and many freelancers. I plan content, handle communications, and set (and keep) deadlines. I've edited the work of numerous columnists expert in their fields, from tap to finance, and I love the process of mentoring and refining so that these writers' ideas can shine.
Last year I came up with our playful photo feature, "Inspiration Wall," a mood-board-like spread of photos illustrating a theme, for example, "Duets," "Airborne," or "Tutus." I set the theme, write the copy, and research and obtain many of the photos. I've also previously managed and written sections on performances, books, movies, and college dance programs.
Read more from the columnists I work with:
Tips for Special Needs Teachers
Tips for Modern & Contemporary Teachers
Dollars, Cents & Due Diligence
Music Tips for Dance Teachers (discontinued)
Writing for the web requires a writer to think three-dimensionally about presenting information—beyond the extreme information compression of a print ad or the linear journey of a feature story. Ideally, a website's information hierarchy is both systematic and intuitive. The writing is clean, concise, and functional.
Can writing for the web be graceful as well? I like to think it can and should be.
At MoMA I was one of the editors on the Museum's blog, Inside/Out. I edited, scheduled, and posted contributions using WordPress, and I helped monitor comments. Sometimes I wrote too.
"I went to MoMA and..." (A Collaboration)
Bodies in the Galleries: Thoughts from an Ex-Dancer on Marina Abramović
"I went to MoMA and...": The Kids Are All Right
"I went to MoMA and...": Love Is in the Air
"I went to MoMA and...": It Looks Like This, Mr. Picasso!
Between 2011 and 2014 I worked frequently for Cattledog Publishing and founder Dr. Sophia Yin, a noted animal behaviorist and veterinarian, who hired me to write marketing copy for a range of applications. I wrote product microsites, book jacket and DVD packaging copy, brochures, seminar descriptions, conference table signage, handouts, emails, and more, all with the goal of helping Dr. Yin widen her audience reach and communicate her message that pet professionals (veterinarians, trainers, breeders) and pet owners can all benefit enormously from a basic understanding of animal behavior and cues and of how animals learn.
I frequently write editors' letters for Dance Studio Life. I write about dance world goings-on and my own dance life: dance in museums, my daughter's stage fright, dancing while aging, recital memories. I love being able to speak with a personal and poetic voice in the pages of the magazine.
I wrote new box and website copy and worked closely with Peters + Kimmerly Design on redesigning the packaging for Dr. Sophia Yin's Treat & Train. This successful product, invented by animal behaviorist and veterinarian Dr. Yin and sold by Premier Pet, was redesigned and reissued in a bright white plastic, rather than the previous version's beige. Dr. Yin wanted fresh, airy, attractive new packaging to match, and a clear and on-message website presence.
Film Plus Trailer
I wrote copy for the trailer launching Film Plus, a new higher-level film membership at The Museum of Modern Art. The trailer screened in MoMA's theaters and at Rooftop Films festival. Team: Julia Hoffmann (creative direction), Brigitta Bungard (art direction, design), Hiroshi Kumatani (animation), Bix Sigurdsson (sound design).
30 Seconds
This fun project with video artist Thilo Hoffmann is part of his ongoing series 30 Seconds (thilohoffmann.com). Hoffmann worked with MoMA members and staff to create short films based on their ideas and experiences in and around the museum. My first idea was to walk everywhere on my hands... but that really would have required a lot more takes.
Watch the video
© The Museum of Modern Art, New York
