English National Opera lifts curtain on rebrand

The English National Opera is being rebranded by Rose and is in the early stages of a roll out, which has seen the “singing” O mark retained but slimmed down.

The incumbent logo and its recognisable “ENO” acronym was designed by Mike Dempsey in 1990, when he was at Carroll Dempsey Thirkell.

Changing weights of letters

“ENO” was previously written in three different weights, with the singing “O” the heaviest. The first glimpse of the new brand was revealed as ENO’s Twitter profile picture and shows that each letter is now the same weight.

A spokesman for ENO says that the new brand is being rolled out softly, with a new website launching in January.

New positioning

Some seasonal campaign work featuring the new identity has also launched and the spokesman says Rose is repositioning ENO as “World-class storytellers”, while reminding the public that all of its operas are in English.

Rose’s work will dovetail with a new front of house at ENO’s London Coliseum Covent Garden location, which is being designed by architect Robin Snell.

The architect will open up the foyer of the building and redesign public café and bar areas. Rose, which was unable to comment at the time of publication, will work alongside, developing branding, graphics and wayfinding solutions, according to the spokesman.