Opera Australia is Australia’s national opera company and arts organisation. Each year it hosts over 600 performances in venues across Australia and Asia including Sydney Opera House and The Arts Centre Melbourne. Interbrand Sydney were asked to breathe new life into their brand to attract new audiences.
In the 21st Century opera is still enjoyed by many audiences, and through rethinking and re-imaging the operatic experience, keeps pace with cultural change. Artistic Director, Lyndon Terracini, has given Opera Australia a refreshing new outlook that speaks to the future of opera – that opera should be for everyone. His bold vision includes performing in non-traditional venues as well as introducing more diverse programming to the mainstage, often involving cutting-edge technology.
We devised a logo system that could open up opera. From OA, to OPERA, to OPERA AUSTRALIA, the identity expands to contain the rich and diverse range of activities the organisation represents.
There's so much more to opera than just the performance on the stage, and this new brand seeks to express that opera isn't one-dimensional – it's multi-dimensional. The costumes, the sets, the stories, the music, the emotion, the stars, the venues, etc. We expressed this by introducing vertical bars, based on musical notation, to separate the different dimensions of opera. Bars change thickness, vertical position and pace to represent the music. In motion, they move at different speeds, representing different instruments and voices; overlapping each other to open up and wipe content in and out.
Images were designed to communicate the genre of productions; helping people understand opera's diversity. Comedies feel funny, tragedies feel sad, and romances feel passionate. We engaged the talents of internationally acclaimed Australian fashion photographer, Georges Antoni to bring a contemporary twist to our classic content.
We took the multiple-dimensional concept one step further with the introduction of an entirely new voice. Since we believe that opera is for everybody, we chose to write articles about the most compelling dimension of each opera. That could be the set design, costume design, location, lead performer, director, technical innovation, the music – in fact anything that was fresh news for established audiences and enticing for new ones.
Georgia Rivers, Sales and Marketing Director at Opera Australia, said, “Interbrand understood what the brand needed very rapidly and thoroughly and the execution of their ideas was superb. The new branding has only been out a few days, but already there is a sense from staff and patrons that they are more proud to be associated with the company, and from others that it’s time to take another look at Opera Australia.”
We’re incredibly proud to reveal the new Opera Australia brand to the world. This has been one of the most challenging projects we’ve faced this year, but with the help of Opera Australia we’ve managed to create a brand for modern Australia. One that will hopefully delight existing audiences and attract new ones. And, with the continued bravery of everyone at Opera Australia, keep this spellbinding art form alive for a very long time.
