Lyric Theatre

2006 — Identity / Art Direction / Marketing Material / Signage

When rebranding the Lyric, a vibrant West London theatre, we aimed to describe its complex energy and personality, to give it a unique visual personality — as a restless and curious mind, willing to explore all genres and aspects of the stage. It became apparent to us that the identity shouldn’t be created on a computer, so we developed a hand written system to become both the signature logo and the general voice of its presentations. The idiosyncrasies inherent in the mark making of spontaneous handwriting are key to the personality of the Lyric. It also allowed us to create titles that talk specifically about a production, so for example, we might use harshly scrawled upper case lettering for a politically charged play or perhaps a looser, more rounded script for something that has a softer, more melancholic theme.

Our three years as the Lyric's art directors saw us designing or overseeing all marketing material including seasonal brochures, posters, fliers, advertisements and website, as well as creating a signage and decorative system. We quite literally scrawled all over the building and promotional material with playful script and drawings, creating the feeling to the the visitor that they have just walked into the lifesize visualisation of a creative sketchbook, full of notes and ideas.