NC Theatre 2012 Season Branding

April 13 2011 By: Landon Elmore

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Landon Elmore Design & Marketing produces
branding and show-looks for the 2012 Season

Thanks to a handy recommendation from our friends at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing arts (whom we had produced a new website for last year) we were approached by the North Carolina Theatre (one of the performance companies resident in the center) to help them develop new branding and design for the upcoming 2012 Performance season.

The upcoming season is unique in that there are a total of a six shows with a line-up of fresh, new titles alongside favorite musical theater classics. This epic season is anchored by eight performances of the sell-out 25th anniversary tour of Les Misérables. Five of these titles have never appeared on a North Carolina Theatre season!

Additionally, the 3 musicals that are touring shows are being co-produced with Broadway Series South and Hot Summer Nights at the Kennedy.

NCT wanted the 2012 season branding to function as a unifying design element across marketing materials for all 6 diverse shows. And as an additional track, we were asked to consider a transitional treatment of the company brand itself…sort of a redesign without the full blown branding studies we would normally do for such a project.

 

First, we were asked to consider some revised logo treatments for NCT that removed the circular “stamp of approval” element from the logo mark. Readability of the logo on various applications and advertisements was a top concern. By removing the circular element, we were able to create a bolder, more readable logotype.

For the season branding, we ultimately settled on a bold font treatment, that played of the NCT logo colors and font. Most of the print applications of the mark are used in a black band across various show promotional materials, to tie the performance back to the NC Theatre season.

Next, we began to work on the “show-looks” and logos for the performances. The touring shows provided logos for A Christmas Story, Les Mis, the new, groundbreaking rocker, American Idiot by Green Day, and Legally Blonde. Show look direction and imagery was also supplied for the touring shows, and Broadway Series South put those 3 together. That meant Steel Magnolias and Oliver! needed new logos, and those plus Legally Blonde needed show-looks designed from scratch. The fun begins!

So after a couple of weeks of design development we were into production on the first set of lobby posters (42 x 84 inches - huge!) for Memorial Auditorium, just in time for the mayor’s press conference announcing he season to the media.

After the press conference we turned our attention to the design of renewal packages for season subscribers. As the season approaches, LEDM will produce all marketing elements for each show, from playbills, to print and online ads and posters.

We are pleased as can be to have North Carolina Theatre as a new client! View our website redesign for NCT>