Abbonamento Musei

THE BIGGEST MUSEUM OF ITALY

Contemporary and universal. The organization that revolutionized the relationship between citizens and culture, with ten years of collaboration during the key phases of its development.

From 2012 to today, Bellissimo has repeatedly supported the public association that popularized the concept of an annual museum card — a true success story in the cultural market, first in Piedmont and later in Valle d’Aosta and Lombardy. The studio’s creative and graphic work proved particularly valuable during a series of crucial milestones in the development of Abbonamento Musei, an initiative that dates back to the mid-1990s. The first of these milestones was the redesign of the membership card.

The logo and visual identity designed by Bellissimo in the early 2010s definitively renewed the project’s visual language, moving toward greater graphic clarity and recognizability. Abbonamento Musei became an instantly recognizable symbol, with the membership card turning into a familiar, “pop” object that people could become attached to — and it has remained so ever since, even after the following restyling.

The second visual identity project continued in the same direction. The imagery is simple, dynamic, and offers freedom to a brand-institution that addresses the entire community.

Bellissimo also supports communication and outreach activities, overseeing brochures, booklets, and the Lettera dei Musei, the periodic publication aimed at cardholders.

Abbonamento Musei is a recurring protagonist in promotional campaigns, particularly around the holidays, when the membership card proves to be a best-selling gift for tens of thousands of people. Over time, Bellissimo has produced several ad campaigns for the initiative, including one of the most appreciated, presenting the membership card as the missing piece to fully enjoy a region’s artistic heritage.

The 2018/2019 campaign offered a fresh perspective: considering the sheer number of works, venues, and exhibitions it provides access to, getting the card is essentially like “entering the largest museum there is.” In this campaign, creativity took a back seat to branding. It was a statement of Abbonamento Musei’s importance within the cultural ecosystem — a positioning on par with other major institutions, a message that would in fact be echoed in the following campaigns.

The expansion into new territories, with the launch in Milan and Lombardy in 2016, marked another major phase of growth for Abbonamento Musei, with Bellissimo contributing. The visual identity evolved effortlessly: deliberately designed to accommodate future developments, the coordinated image was enriched with new color palettes to represent the different regions.

On this occasion, Bellissimo also oversaw the launch campaign. The main goal was to introduce the new expansion in a clear, accessible language, with the same approachability of a cultural offer that attracts an increasingly wide and diverse audience.

We wanted the brand to support the overall evolution of the project, including its expansion beyond Piedmont. A brand that could adapt, yet with a very strong core.

Simona Ricci, Director