MUBA — Museo della Bonifica di Arborea

The context

MUBA is housed in the former Mill of Arborea and tells the story of the reclamation of the Sassu plain and of the town, founded in 1928 by families from Veneto, Friuli, Romagna and Sicily, an internal migration experiment unique for its time.

The challenge

A museum that tells a living story, but in one direction only: visitors look, read and leave.

Outside Sardinia almost nobody knows it, and the museum's communication does not tell it. I led the research on branding, tone of voice and personality: three audience clusters, nine personas, five museums compared across eighteen factors. None uses irony and sharing is barely explored, and that is where MUBA could stand.

The idea

A museum you don't just look at. You live it.

Three verbs: discover, connect, leave your mark. The voice is a hand-drawn grandmother, warm and ironic, and the brand promise is written in Italian, Venetan and Sardinian.

The identity

As art director I built a complete identity: a logo with a stretched B, charcoal and cream with a single accent, reclamation red, black-and-white archive photographs, custom-drawn illustrations and animations.

Website and MUBApp

I redesigned the website around storytelling, with a sitemap rebuilt from scratch and new pages and features: a digital museum, digitised artefacts, online ticket booking. The native MUBApp makes exploring more mindful, with an audio guide, a map and item scanning.

Communication

The podcast Ciacolate, from the Venetan motto "ciacolare e ciacoleremo", "we chat, and we'll keep chatting", gives a voice to those who watched the land change. A tailor-made editorial plan of exhibitions, talks and announcements shares the same visual grammar. The project is ready to hand over to the client.