STRONGBOX THEATER visual branding
Logo and business cards. This small theater in East Rockaway, NY is in a former 19th century bank building. When I was asked to design their logo, there was really nothing from which to build the brand - the theater has yet to host its first performance. It was purchased in 2020, in what we all hoped was the middle of the Covid pandemic. Ensuing supply-chain issues, combined with the complexity of transforming a bank into a theater/bar, means they won’t open until fall of 2024. Using the elegant old structure, abandoned vault and antique safe deposit boxes as inspiration, I presented approximately 20 logo concepts. The logo the client chose uses a font that evokes the 19th century, theater and banking. The client can use the wordmark, with the tick over the “o,” alone or in combination with the lock symbol.
As I created their brand, I thought of patterns and illustrations that might work well as elements on menus, programs, even carpet, and included some on the reverse sides of their business cards.
Strongbox has garnered favorable attention in NY Newsday, on CBS New York and in local media and has produced two outdoor theater festivals.
Website. On the Strongbox home page I used a photo I’d taken of the building interior as background, plus the brand colors, to create a new-but-old, slightly haunted/mysterious feel. The site is built on the Squarespace platform, so can be easily changed and updated by the client. Once the theater opens, hidden links in the navigation such as Calendar and Merchandise can be activated. Website: www.strongboxtheater.com (Warning: Client-maintained!)
Show posters
The 39 Steps. Strongbox Theater’s first show was a slapstick remake of the early Hitchcock film “The 29 Steps.” It was a small outdoor show in a local park and the budget wasn’t big enough to hire an illustrator, so I sketched simple silhouettes of the key characters in a mid-century style. Fitting in all of the credits required was challenging, so I separated the layout into two areas, one in black so it receded from the main image. The play was well received and attracted enthusiastic audiences.
A Festival of Stage and Song. Strongbox’s second outdoor production was a group of very different one-act plays, so I created a mostly typographical design in order to encompass all the genres. I gave the typography a handmade, casual quality. The colors and illustration are meant to evoke the feel of a summer evening.