Local Tech Company Snags the Met

Portland-based Instrument doesn't talk a lot about what they do, but the digital creative firm has a client list ranging Red Bull to Nike to Google. It just added another that promises to raise the profile of the  nearly 100- employee firm:  The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Last month,  Instrument and The Met released the first version of an app for the cultural institution, the largest art museum in the country and considered one of the most important museums in the world. 

It's not a typical way-finding app that gives a guided tour of the museum, forcing visitors to put on headphones and stare down at their screens, but rather a tool that gives people a place to start facilitating their own connections to a storied institution and the stories it tells through the art displays.

“We wanted the app to feel like an insider version of The Met,” Jessie White, Instrument art director for The Met app, said. “With all its power and prestige, The Met can be intimidating, this app is a trusted super fan that can curate a unique experience for every visit.”

Initial reviews seem positive, though that’s mostly from the more techie side. The notoriously finicky veteran art journalists aren’t quite so sure.

Business Insider calls it a “snazzy new app”, the ArtsBeat blog at NYTimes.com said it “…will do…something,” while a Forbes.com contributor deemed it “exceedingly simple and modest in its ambitions.”

Construction of The Met app was built they way many tech companies do their work--remote teams get on Google Hangout for 4-8 hours per day. Instrument Strategist Stuart Cornuelle attested it was nowhere near as tedious as one might think.

“As a client, The Met was fantastic to work with, they bring to bear a level of detailed thinking and diligence that was extremely helpful to the process,” Cornuelle said.

The app did not represent a huge piece of work for Instrument but is a departure from the sort of work they traditionally do. It was Susan Sellers, head of design for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, that put Instrument on its request for proposal (RFP) list.

“Strategy is at the forefront of all we do. Design follows that,” White said. “We knew we had the tools. We were waiting, looking for an opportunity to do it.”

Interestingly, Portland does have a firm that specializes in museum apps: Second Story, which has done apps for the Whitney Museum of American Art, among several others.  It's not clear if they applied for the work with the Met.

WWeek 2015