The Acting Company
Visual Identity, Website, Publication
Visual identity and marketing materials for renowned touring theater dedicated to emerging actors
Setting the stage for theatrical excellence
Isometric designed an expansive new brand identity for The Acting Company, the nation’s premiere touring repertory theater. Over the past 50 years, The Acting Company has brought exceptional productions to over 4 million people in 48 states, providing a valuable training ground for young artists at the start of their careers. Founded out of The Julliard School, its alumni include theater luminaries Patti Lupone, Lorraine Touissaint, Kevin Kline, and Jesse L. Martin. The new visual identity frames images and typography in perspective lines, evoking the unmatchable presence of stage performance. When actors arrive in any space—physical or virtual—the theater comes alive. At a moment when the global pandemic presents unprecedented challenges to the performing arts community, the new visual identity epitomizes the unrelenting power of theater to bring people together.
Creating a theater identity that stands out
The new visual identity differentiates The Acting Company from standard theater advertising; it is an elegant and flexible kit of parts, as well suited to Shakespearean tragedy as it is contemporary comedy. The perspective line motif suggests the architecture of the theater, viewed both from the stage and the audience. It activates the page, making space for dynamic compositions of language and image. Photos are framed in trapezoidal shapes, creating windows onto The Acting Company’s repertoire. The principal serif typeface Keroine is operatic in its height and custom character. Roman and italic are used in combination to create a sense of emphasis and drama, as if the script were being spoken to you.
Breaking boundaries to meet the moment
The theater community was deeply shaken by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Venues shut down across America—particularly in New York City—displacing thousands of stage workers. Soon after, though, the community adapted and began to move online and outdoors, bringing actors and audiences together across space and time. As the theater world reconceptualized its own identity and sense of purpose, we imagined how The Acting Company's new visual identity, too, could perform less as an announcement and more as nuanced narrative—better integrated with a digital aesthetic, more focused on storytelling, and with a greater emphasis on the lives of the actors and theater workers.
