Victory Gardens Theater’s location in the historic landmark Biograph Theater creates a branding challenge, in that many people recognize the historic marquee, but do not know the theater company. This exterior branding — unobtrusive to the theater’s historic architecture — helps tie in the work of the company to its historic location.
Prior to my work with Victory Gardens, the exterior of the historic Biograph was covered in window clings advertising the year’s productions as well as the show currently playing on stage. Graphics were busy and contained too much information for the average passerby, and the theater name often got lost in the clutter of other, often irrelevant information. After rebranding, the theater name is placed prominently across the top — in a condensed version of the new Victory Gardens Sans typeface — with a stylized representation of past productions and ticketing information underneath.
Victory Gardens Theater Exterior Branding
Category: Environmental
Client: Victory Gardens Theater
Victory Gardens is a Tony Award-winning theater in Chicago, dedicated to staging challenging plays and musicals, developing and producing new works, and cultivating an inclusive theater community, housed in the historic landmark Biograph Theater.
The theater has had a challenge in the past connecting with its location in the public’s mind — many in the surrounding Lincoln Park neighborhood know of the Biograph but have not heard of Victory Gardens despite its awards and accolades.
To help remedy this disconnect, I took the large area of windows that had previously been used for season / show specific advertisements and converted it to large signage for the theater, with stylized images of past productions and large type spelling out VICTORY GARDENS THEATER, which had previously only been used in smaller applications on the theater exterior and was not immediately visible to passers-by.
The large signage used the new Victory Gardens Sans typeface, which was designed specifically as a modern adaptation of the letter shapes in the historic Biograph marquee.