Visual Identity

The better looking twin brother

What is visual identity good for ?

It generates cost, there surely is an utility !-)

“If you think that good design is expensive,

you should look at the cost of bad design.”

(Dr. Ralf Speth - CEO Jaguar Land Rover)

About one hundred private theatres of France, mainly Paris based are members of a union called Syndicat National du Théâtre Privé.

Now this is a prestigious institution. So prestigious, they did not even need a proper logo. They had a stylised graphic of a curtain associated to their handwritten name, which was not easy to read.

It is a typical behaviour of people who are well known and great in their domains: they do not bother about their appearance. Basically it’s like the mustard-stained shirt, carried by an immense professor at university. (Robert, nur für Dich !-)

Now in our case marriage was ahead.

The “National Union of Privat Theatres“ would go together with the “Union of Cabarets and Shows“ called “Scènes“ (stages). The logo of the partner carries his short name and a conceptual idea (a spotlight), in a magenta circle.

In a common signature, the cabaret logo would visually stick out by far.

The theatre guys feared to be assimilated by his better looking twin brother and perish as identity in the long run. A new branding was needed.

Visual Identity is simply a question of life or death.

The new logo expresses the outreach (rayonnement) of the theatre as an institution.

The graphic of the logo represents a floorplan of a theatre (italien style).

the red dot symbolises artistic freedom.

The idea is, that the mutualisation of the benefits the union haggles out, by using the power of the big ones, helps the small ones to survive and thus garantie the very existence of the necessary “playground“ for artistic freedom to express itself. The longterm outcome of the expressions will be the very same thing, the big ones get their power from.

(If that is too abstract, just look at a 8 for a while ;-)