The Pittsburgh Public Theater is well-recognized for having premiered many August Wilson plays as well as for its dedication to its tradition of producing new work. It serves as one of the most prominent theaters located in the heart of the Cultural District to be serving up new and diverse theater.

Before I had arrived at Pittsburgh Public Theater, I was alerted that the company had already hired an external design company to revitalize the brand of the theater and design the next season's art. This is a purely theoretical project if they had asked me to rebrand the theater instead and what I would have chosen to do.

My rebrand focuses on the unique qualities of this regional theater by designing a logomark and extended brand identy evoking its avant-guarde nature and tying the theater company closer to its location and distinctive stage.

Project info
2022, Branding

My first step of the process was to look at the theater and see what made them unique. From their mission on The Public Theater's website:

The mission of Pittsburgh Public Theater is to provide artistically diverse theatrical experiences of the highest quality.

Pittsburgh Public Theater also strives to serve, challenge, stimulate and entertain while operating in a fiscally responsible manner. The Public shares its resources with the community through education and engagement initiatives intended for a wide range of people with the goal of expanding and diversifying the audience while enriching the community. 

From here I found 4 words that exemplified the theater: Compassion, Uplifting, Inclusive, and Excellence.

As I interrogated this idea, I found that the stage's presence embodied these characteristics. The theater is unique in having a thrust stage that extends out into the audience.

My rebrand used this as a 3D shape that can be easily changed providing new character in each image. At certain angles, the stage begins to look like light pouring though a doorway, or a book opening up.

The challenge in theater industry soon became apparent to me of how do you retain conservative patrons of the arts while also enticing a new generation of theater-goers and staying true to the Public's mission of being a theater for the Public. My color choices tried to retain this balance. By using the colors of Pittsburgh, they strike a balance of being both optically powerful and striking while staying conscious of the city and its audience.

Using all these elements I developed brandwork for the theater and some of its old and upcoming shows. I plan for the brand design to be both structured but flexible so that it can still be used in any production's marketing materials.