National Black Theatre
Visual Identity, Signage, Illustration
Visual identity and signage program imagined for the transformative Harlem institution
Manifesting the Black theater of the future
Isometric partnered with the National Black Theatre to create a new brand identity and forthcoming signage program that reflects the visionary and transformative Harlem institution. The applications shown here represent ways in which Isometric has imagined the new NBT identity, which will continue to evolve over the next months and years as the theater builds its new home. NBT was founded in 1968 by Dr. Barbara Ann Teer and has spent five decades investing in Black artists, presenting award-winning productions, and centering Blackness on the stage and beyond. It is the longest-running Black theater in New York City and is currently constructing an entirely new building to house its programs. Through bold custom typography, vibrant color, and sacred geometric illustration, the visual identity reflects NBT’s powerful legacy and radically-inclusive future vision.
Amplifying the theater’s voice through custom typography
We designed a custom typeface, NBT Visionary, to give visual voice to the National Black Theatre’s mission and values, expanding a wordmark drawn by designer Lori Evelyn, who adapted the typography of the theater’s original signage. The result is bold and declarative, yet nuanced and scalable, to communicate powerfully with audiences existing and new. Along with supporting typography, NBT Visionary is designed to work dynamically across multiple scales and media to amplify a vast array of productions, programs and campaigns. Paired with effusive color and dynamic illustrations, the typographic identity communicates NBT’s core mission to educate, enrich, entertain, empower, and inform.
Photo by Loreto “Still1” Jamlig.
Infusing the institution’s mission with dignity and energy
The theater’s original 1969 logo was based on a seraphic figure called the Max, short for “maximum spirit.” Since then, it has undergone numerous updates and iterations, most recently by Lori Evelyn, who translated the logo to a monochromatic, scalable vector format. We further updated the illustration so that it is attentive to the original drawing, reintroducing details such as hair and defining facial features, drawing inspiration from Black artists Kara Walker and Emory Douglas. The Max logo is flexibly deployed in various compositions and can be used as a self-contained logo or a complementary symbol, adding dignity and energy to the theater’s messaging and enhancing its mission to “unlock the past to ignite the future.”
Celebrating ancestors and centering Black futures
On the occasion of NBT’s major redevelopment, Isometric is collaborating with Marvel Architects and Frida Escobedo to design comprehensive interior and exterior signage. Deploying the “sacred ancestral geometry” and custom typography of the visual identity, we are developing an immersive spatial identity for the new multi-disciplinary cultural arts facility set to open in 2026. The design comprises lettering and geometry incised into the architecture, animated on digital screens, and illuminated on the building facade. Inside, a monumental wall will be devoted to NBT’s ancestors, and another sparkling installation will artistically illuminate the connection between the theater’s spiritual origins in the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove in Nigeria and its physical home in Harlem.
Production still from FAT HAM.
