As winners of six Tony Awards, seven Obie Awards, nine Drama Desk Awards, one Grammy Award, one Pulitzer Prize, and many other honors, the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, California, needed a rebrand to represent all its successes.
Designed by Paula Scher and the Pentagram team, the new identity for the theatre showcases both its extraordinary passion and excellence. The complete identity was created around the letter “B,” which was incited by the geometrical shape of a ticket stub. The logo was produced with dynamic designs in mind to be resized and rescaled without losing its readability and clarity for digital and print assets.
“The dynamic volume reinforces the idea of Berkeley Rep as a multifaceted space for performance and theater as an immersive experience for audiences,” Pentagram wrote about the project. “The logo can extend across the website homepage or the top of letterhead or rise vertically to fill the frame of a poster. It can also be used as a container shape or window for imagery from productions or appear in graphic patterns.”
The identity appears in a dazzling shade of blue coined “Berkley blue,” and when paired with the multi-purpose sans serif font, designed by Oh no Type Co., the branding system somehow teeters between minimalistic yet exhilarating flawlessly.
The theatre’s mission is to both entertain and challenge its audience and provoke civil engagement. They dreamed of an identity that would promote the institution as well as its productions. This new branding system visually helps carry out the task, begging audiences to learn and see more. And, if you’re curious, the next show titled The Ripple, The Wave That Carried Me Home, starts on October 1, 2021.
