The project began with a simple idea: what happens at the intersection of fine art and toys? The creative vision was to celebrate the world’s most iconic artists—figures like Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet —through Mattel Creations products, and to design a framework that allowed these masterpieces to live within the elevated, minimalist world of the MoMA Design Store.

The style guide became the bridge between play and art. It outlined how packaging, typography, color, and merchandising should adapt when toys take on the weight of fine art. The principle was simple: let the artwork do the speaking. Clean lines, restrained palettes, and design systems were crafted to highlight the paintings themselves, transforming toys into objects of design that felt at home alongside MoMA’s curated collections.

Art direction and strategy defined every choice. From specifying how to photograph product with fine art reproductions, to developing packaging layouts that foreground the art while subtly weaving in Mattel Creations branding, each detail reinforced MoMA’s modernist sensibility while honoring the playfulness at Mattel’s core.

My Role:

I led the art direction and development of the end-to-end style guide:

• Established the overarching design principles for “fine art × toys”

• Created rules for packaging systems, typography, and color application

• Designed branding layouts that elevated the artwork as the hero

• Defined product photography and lifestyle imagery direction

• Developed in-store merchandising and digital asset standards

• Partnered with cross-functional teams to align MoMA brand guidelines with Mattel Creations’ storytelling

This was a blueprint for translating art history into toy design—an end-to-end system that elevated Mattel Creations into the world of fine art, while ensuring every product at MoMA looked like part of a curated, world-class collection.