Project Overview
In 2021, The Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) moved into their new performance space in Walsh Bay’s arts precinct. This move heralded a new era for the entire company and we were fortunate enough to help launch their new brand to coincide with this significant turning of the page.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Matt Newell - CEO
Chris Scott - ECD
Alex Edwards - Co-Client Services Director
Reeshma Bhanji - Creative Director
Jordan Banco - Project Manager
Project Brief
While ATYP is Australia’s premier youth theatre company - and a leader on the Australian Theatre Scene (with notable alumni including Rebel Wilson and Rose Byrne) - people continue to mistake youth theatre to be amateur and generally, quite shit.
With a significant move to a new purpose-built location, and an exciting new season approaching, our brief was to breathe new life into the brand, and help redefine the way people view ATYP.
Project Innovation/Need
The brief was full of contradictions. How do we represent a brand with a long history AND a youthful spirit? A brand that is professional AND amateur? A brand that fosters discipline AND rebelliousness?
The answer? We embraced the contradictions to build a creative platform that had drama and tension at its core.
Working with the traditional comedy / tragedy masks as a starting point, we flipped them into a very youthful visual language that is constantly moving and shifting between emotional states. We combined that with modern typography and rebellious photography to create a platform that no other art organisation could pull off. It’s a truly unique take on youth theatre that captures the essence of ATYP’s creativity and professionalism.
Design Challenge
There were two key challenges we tackled with this brief:
1) This was a pro-bono project on a very tight timeline. However our team was so passionate about what ATYP represented in terms of dramatic opportunities for young people that we had to create sufficient headspace for quality design thinking & exploration that wasn’t to the detriment of our paying clients.
2) Throughout this entire project we had to strike a balance between maintaining the distinctive, engaging and edgy nature that makes ATYP so distinct, while increasing the sense of professionalism and credibility.
Effectiveness
Since going live in Dec 2021 (coinciding with the move into the purpose-built space), feedback on ATYP’s new branding has been incredibly positive from the arts world and ATYP theatre goers alike. Those new to ATYP have expressed how the brand is an intriguing mix of youthful exuberance and professional theatre, whilst those with long-standing experience of ATYP have praised how the new brand is a contemporary refresh in keeping with having taken residence in its new home. Furthermore, both groups have played back that the juxtaposition within the new brand is an accurate reflection of the personality imbued by an ATYP production, accentuating the visitor experience whether physically at the theatre or digitally whilst on its website or socials.
Graphic Design - Identity and Branding
This award celebrates creative and innovative design in the traditional or digital visual representation of ideas and messages. Consideration given to clarity of communication and the matching information style to audience.
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