Royal Opera House

Of all the noises known to man, opera is the most expensive - Molière

The Challenge

To explore the Collections, Brand and House-style of the Royal Opera brand to create designs suitable for Friends of the Royal Opera House, exclusive retail online and the Royal Opera House Shop in Covent Garden.

The project involved working with the Licensing manager Gwyneth Campling initially to explore the very large collection documenting its history both for ballet and opera. These works are a brilliant record of the nature of theatre, performance and the back stage elements which make up the history of the place. In addition, time was spent working with Robert Perry, the Manager of Retail and Merchandising. It is never easy getting to grips with a unique brand and retail operation but the opportunities were abundant to express these visually and with quality.

About the Royal Opera House:
The Royal Opera House is a major performing arts venue in London’s Covent Garden and is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Each season:

Over 600,000 people attend performances at Covent Garden
95,000 people participate in education and access events
Over 2,000,000 listen to radio broadcasts
Over 1,000,000 watch each televised performance.

Project Overview & Solutions

If a man loves the labour of his trade, apart from any question of success or fame, the gods have called him - Robert Louis Stevenson

Although the Opera House Archive was rich in potential it was also very specific and the solution demanded more brand-focused designs for the project. A number of different ideas were discussed for: A Royal Opera House boardgame, Pencils, Notebooks, Bookbags, Outdoor Seating for Opera-goers

The source material was the Brand itself and also the potential to use ticketing which is, in itself, very evocative of the experience combining typography and colour with the ROH logo. The ROH current brand look was developed by SomeOne. They created a fresh framework which allows a good environment to explore surface design. This look was the winner of the 2010 ‘TRANSFORM AWARD FOR BRANDING’.

Although designs for pencils were created the final products were two colour ways of stylish Notebooks. These featured a paper wrap with details of the ROH and backdrop of the ROH brand.

Website: Royal Opera House Online Shop
Distribution: UK/Europe/ROW
Availability: Exclusively from The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Online.

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