Conducted on-site user research and developed flexible voice guidelines that help New York's oldest museum balance 220 years of heritage with a contemporary, inclusive mission..
Key Details:
Role: Brand Communications Strategist (plus contributions to brand platform development and naming)
Timeline: Fall 2023 - October 2024 (with concentrated work periods)
Team: Collaborated with brand strategists, voice practice leader, and visual designers
Methods: On-site visitor interviews, competitive analysis, behavioral research, strategic brainstorming
Deliverables: 9 voice tactics in flexible "best practices" framework, content examples across 6+ touchpoints
Recognition: Official brand unveiling October 29, 2024, at ceremony with 75 new U.S. citizens
The Problem
The New-York Historical Society Museum & Library—New York's first museum, founded in 1804—came to Lippincott in 2023. The institution was at a pivotal moment. The museum needed to evolve from its "highfalutin" reputation into something that reflected its more diverse staff, board, and contemporary mission.
The challenge: How do we honor 220 years of heritage while clarifying our expanded focus and impact on national discourse?
The audience challenge:
The museum had a reputation for stodginess that limited its potential as a cultural destination in a rapidly evolving New York City. When I later visited the museum to conduct research, I observed that the current visitor base skewed older and predominantly white, many of whom were attached to what they perceived as the museum's traditional legacy. This observation reinforced the challenge: the museum needed to evolve its identity to reflect and welcome the diverse audiences it aspired to serve.
The tension:
This wasn't a simple modernization project. The challenge was respecting the past while demonstrating investment in the future. Tip too far toward heritage, and the institution wouldn't feel relevant today. Tip too far toward contemporary positioning, and you'd alienate core audiences who valued the museum's historical authority. The solution had to incorporate both elements so they complemented rather than canceled each other out, avoiding vague or generic institutional identity.
My role:
I joined the project in late summer 2023 as it was beginning. My scope included:
Conducting on-site visitor research
Contributing to brand platform development (refining brand commitments and personality)
Developing brand communication guidelines and voice tactics
Providing ideational and editorial support throughout the naming process
Research & Discovery
On-Site Visitor Research
In October 2023, I spent a day at the museum conducting qualitative research with visitors. I interviewed 10 people in various locations—on the entrance steps, in hallways outside exhibits, and within specific galleries.
Key questions I explored included:
How long have you been in the museum today?
Was your trip planned or spontaneous?
What have you found unique about your experience here versus other museums?
How would you describe your feelings moving through the space physically?
If you were convincing a friend to visit, what would you say?
Would you refer to the New-York Historical Society by its full name when speaking about it?
Is there one thing you'd definitely want to see changed or not want to see changed?
Research Insights
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Multiple visitors expressed pleasant surprise that the museum offered more than just New York history. They appreciated the variety and didn't realize the scope extended to national historical discourse.
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People spoke positively about the museum's comprehensiveness. Two women I spoke with loved how she "always fe[lt] like a new piece of history is around every corner." They found it stimulating but notably, no one used the word "overwhelming."
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When asked about moving through the space, responses included: "nice, pleasant, easy to navigate, clean, professional, organized." The large gallery halls weren't packed, creating a hushed, contemplative atmosphere. People took their time—no one seemed rushed.
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Visitors exhibited both respect for the institution's authority and genuine curiosity about what they might discover. The Tiffany lamp exhibit was particularly popular. The activist energy in some exhibits—highlighting lesser-known social history and championing diverse civic figures—also resonated.
Key Takeaway: Visitors valued openness and accessibility. They didn't feel crowded or funneled but had room to navigate toward what interested them or explore and learn new things. This sense of agency in their experience became foundational to our strategic direction.
Competitive Research
I also conducted a communications audit of comparable institutions including The New York Philharmonic, The Shed, MoMA, and The Smithsonian. I analyzed their web content to build brand character profiles based on tone, syntax, and language choices in order to help the team identify a space of possibility our client could own.
Brand Platform Development
During the refining concepts phase, I participated in brainstorming sessions that shaped the brand platform. My visitor research directly informed this work.
I contributed to articulating three Brand Commitments:
Historical authority with modern resonance
A home for American discourse
A catalyst for civic responsibility
I edited the language expressing each commitment's meaning and helped develop three Brand Personality traits that would guide all communications.
Welcoming
Visitors valued the museum's openness and accessibility. They had room to explore without feeling constrained or directed.
Expert
For visitors, the museum's stature came from its authoritativeness—both the physical space and its rich tapestry of local and national historical knowledge.
Active
Visitors enjoyed the stimulating environment, driven in part by the exhibits championing diverse civic activism.
The "Aha Moment": Seeing how seamlessly these personality traits connected to the research-backed brand commitments unlocked the communications approach. The subsequent tactics could naturally flow from the architecture, staying true not just to the platform but the visitors’ experience.
The Solution
A Flexible Voice Framework
Rather than the highly prescriptive tactical system I'd developed for other clients, The New York Historical needed something different—a flexible "best practices" framework that gave guidance without constraining the museum's diverse content needs.
I developed 9 voice tactics organized under the three personality traits, each structured as:
Do: [Positive guidance] / Don't: [What to avoid]
Illustrative "correct" and "incorrect" copy examples
Application across various museum touchpoints
This structure acknowledged that the museum would be creating everything from wayfinding signage and event captions to exhibition content and fundraising content. They needed principles they could adapt, not rigid rules.
Impact & Results
Official Launch
The evolved brand identity—including the simplified name "The New York Historical"—was officially unveiled on October 29, 2024, at what the team called "a critical inflection point."
The unveiling took place during a naturalization ceremony for 75 new U.S. citizens, thematically tying the rebrand to the museum's role in civic education and inspiring new generations of civic leaders.
Client Response
Strategic Outcome
The voice guidelines successfully navigate the core tension: they allow the museum to sound modern and accessible while remaining deeply steeped in its functional purpose of preserving the past to inform the future. The framework is flexible enough to work across the museum's diverse content needs—from social media to scholarly publications—while maintaining a coherent brand personality.
Reflection
The Value of On-Site Research
Conducting interviews at the museum fundamentally changed my approach compared to desk-based research. The visitors weren't faceless personas or templated audience segments—they were real people whose voices I could listen to in my recordings, whose experiences I'd witnessed firsthand.
This made the work feel tangible and meaningful. I wasn't just helping redesign communications in the abstract; I was helping shape the experience of a place that mattered to people. That real-world connection added a spark that, when I was engaged with this project, made me feel like I was meaningfully delivering a service to others.
Breadth of Experience
Unlike other projects where I focused exclusively on communications strategy, here I got to experience greater breadth: conducting primary research, contributing to naming ideation, providing editorial support across workstreams, and shaping the brand platform itself.
I tried on different hats and showed I could think in different strategic contexts. This variety was energizing and taught me that I'm most engaged when I can contribute across multiple phases of a project rather than being brought in for one discrete deliverable.
Unlike some projects where I joined after strategy was set, here I was involved from discovery through implementation, allowing me to shape strategic direction and see how research insights directly informed the final system.
Furthermore, working on a cultural institution felt meaningfully different from corporate branding. The mission—civic education, preserving history, inspiring democratic engagement—added weight to the work. Getting the voice right wasn't just about market positioning; it was about making historical knowledge and civic discourse accessible to people who might otherwise feel excluded from those spaces.
This experience confirmed my interest in working with organizations where the product or mission centers on discovery, understanding, and meaning-making—helping people find content that enriches their perspective.