Addiction brands online theatre start-up

Addiction London has branded and created a Web presence for Digital Theatre, a start-up company that screens online high-definition film recordings of theatre performances.

The consultancy was appointed directly in April, and given a brief to create an identity, website, stationery, idents, credit sequences and promotional films.
Martin Delamere, creative director at Addiction London, says that as an advertising and branding consultancy, it is able to ‘design right through’.

Starting with the identity, Delamere looked to make something authoritative with transatlantic appeal. ‘It needed to look like it had been around for a long time, but appear modern, so we’ve combined the curvature of a Greek theatre or auditorium and a modern typeface.’

Delamere is keen to stress that his approach is drawn from the professionalism of the company’s offer, which, he says, is akin to ‘sports coverage’, operating with ‘single-camera continuity’.

The website features a dark background to mimic an auditorium at night.

‘Navigation is mainly through images. There are visuals to guide people, including logos of the company’s sponsors,’ says Delamere.

The deep red colour used across communications has been selected to evoke the ‘rich colours of the theatre’ and ‘the premium feel of content’.

An animated ident for the website and all downloadable productions use a visual that draws on the similarity between a camera lens and a theatre auditorium.

Delamere describes trailers created by the consultancy for forthcoming plays as ‘cinematic’, using the same approach as trailers for films.