If you have been to New York lately and tried to go to the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum on 5th Avenue, you were probably out of the luck.  The museum is closed for two years while they update and modernize.  They have moved many of their exhibits to off-site locations throughout the city.

You may be wondering why we, a label company, are talking about a museum?  New York is a popular tourist city.  A lot of people come to see museums like the Cooper-Hewitt.  Living in Boston, it is easy for us to jump on the train and be in NYC in a few hours.  Visiting from California?  Not so simple.  It can be frustrating when an attraction on your list of “must do’s” is closed.

So, how does a design museum dissuade your aggravation?  They design funny signs and make you smile.  For example, one of the signs hung outside of the museum says, “After more than a century, I’m due for a little me time”.  Are you smiling?

One of my favorite signs hilariously says, “Like many on Fifth Avenue, I’m having a little work done.”  Ok, now you have to smiling and laughing.  Even the most botoxed babe would be smile at that…if she could smile.

The point of this post wasn’t to make you just smile and laugh, but also to show how a good design can really turn a negative into a positive.  Tourists who didn’t get a chance to visit the museum surely won’t remember showing up to the locked doors with a sour taste.  They will warmly remember the funny signs, and plan to visit the museum when they re-open in 2013.  Yay!