CriticalDance Forum

ENGLISH NATIONAL BALLET UNVEILS A NEW LOGO AND COLLABORATION WITH VIVIENNE WESTWOOD

English National Ballet has revealed reveal details of a rebranding that includes a collaboration with designer Vivienne Westwood.

And a completely new look it is too, with a new logo (pictured above) in a new red-fuchsia colour palette. At first sight it could be almost anything; one of those logos that belongs to a company with one of those meaningless names that gives absolutely no idea what they do. When you are told that it represents both speech marks and shoes en pointe, the link is rather clearer. Continuing with that idea, and in true marketing speak, it is claimed that the new logo represents “a core truth that everyone in the Company, from young dancers to the outreach team, has something to say.” According to the company, the new “confident, creative and contemporary” is designed to reflect and support Tamara Rojo's leadership and vision of making ENB the UK’s most creative and most loved ballet company.

Rojo explains that the collaboration is the first signs of her stated ambition to forge partnerships with leaders in other art forms. She says, “I am thrilled that Vivienne Westwood has agreed to let us use her clothes in our first campaign. It’s a dream come true to be able to collaborate with someone of such stature. Her designs capture the creativity and ambition of our dancers who, in turn, add drama and movement to the clothes.”

ENB will also be driving other creative collaborations with photographers, stylists and designers, all coming together to interpret themes of individual shows.

Tom Sharp, Creative Director of design agency The Beautiful Meme, explains that the campaign is about taking the dancers out of tutus and moving away from conventional backstage images to show their intensity and creativity. He adds that the idea is to respect the tradition of ballet but build on it.

There has also been a redesign of the website, which is still at http://www.ballet.org.uk.

The cheerleaders for Tamara Rojo over at The Guardian have come up with this fulsome report:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2013/fe ... ?fb=native

Actually the new posters are quite vile, exactly who they are supposed to attract I have no idea. Amongst the responses at the end I liked the comments on the following link:

http://bellyflopmag.com/blog/advert-agro

Not everyone is taken in by this pretentiousness.