En pointe: How Bruce Mau Design rebranded The National Ballet of Canada

The National Ballet of Canada, which was founded in 1951, decided it required a redesign for the first time in nearly two decades. David Craik discovers how its revamped identity by Bruce Mau Design marries classical elegance with modern vibrancy.

Boldness may not be a word commonly associated with the world of ballet and its elegant pointe shoes and swaying tulle skirts. But when Toronto-based National Ballet of Canada decided to launch its first brand redesign in two decades, it was decided that it would no longer do just to ‘be polite’. A bold new approach reflecting the diverse, emotional, physical and creative organisation of today and into the future was needed.

“The last redesign was back in 2006 when Karen Kain became our new artistic director,” explains Belinda Bale, The National Ballet of Canada’s marketing director. “We created a beautiful brand that reflected Karen’s classical legacy.”

When Kain retired in 2021 and was replaced by Hope Muir, it was an opportune moment to go in a new direction. “As well as having a new leader with her own philosophy, we were emerging from the pandemic. We wanted something that reflected the changed times as well as the diversity of our organisation. That we were committed to contemporary as well as classical work and that we weren’t elitist, we were for everybody. We also wanted to stress that we were inclusive, looking to bring in new energy and voices,” Bale says. “As Hope said we didn’t want the rebrand to be polite, we wanted to go out and be bold.”

In July, just 12 months after Toronto-based Bruce Mau Design (BMD) was selected to lead the transformation, the new identity was unveiled.

Reimagining the art

It certainly lived up to the ‘bold’ theme, with The National Ballet of Canada wordmark serving as a unique, proactive storytelling device to attract and engage audiences. The redesign also featured vibrant colours, moving away from the previous overly gendered pink, and used motion to reflect the physical nature of the art form.

“We wanted to make the brand design exciting, dramatic and relevant to people’s own lives,” explains Laura Stein, chief creative officer at BMD. “We wanted to create a breadcrumb trail for the audience so they could look at ballet in a new way.”

BMD was one of four Canadian companies that interviewed for the work. Before an RFP was issued, Muir and Bale sat down with each one in turn to gauge their understanding of what ballet is and where it needs to be.

“It was a different approach from those we’d taken before,” says Bale. “But we really wanted to find a partner that clicked with Hope. We felt that needed to be done in person. We talked about what we were looking for but also wanted to know more about them and who they were. Who are the designers we would be putting our trust into?”

It was also important for Stein. “We have worked with performing and visual arts clients before, so we aren’t strangers to the specific challenges they are facing. We are really passionate about the idea of expanding the footprint and accessibility of these organisations. It is part of who we are, and it really dovetailed well with The National Ballet.”

Stein explains that BMD carried out research before meeting Muir, including interviews she had given after taking on the new role. “We know The National Ballet very well. It is iconic in Canada and respected globally,” Stein says. “But we wanted to understand Hope’s ideas and it was clear that she didn’t want just another new logo that was nice and contemporary and digitally focussed. She wanted to be ambitious, and we wanted to help her articulate that visually.”

At those early meetings, Stein emphasised the importance of ‘bringing people into the conversation from the outset’.

“Part of our typical process is to make sure that we hear from people internally within an organisation,” Stein says. “We go in thinking we know some things, but we don’t know a lot of things. We suspend our design ideas until we hear from the people who matter.”

That approach sat well with The National Ballet, which wanted its artists – such as dancers and choreographers as well as other stakeholders including board members and the audience – to ‘have agency’ in the direction of the new brand.

As such, the first action BMD’s six-strong core team took after winning the contract was to engage in a month-long research process.

Behind the curtain

This included holding one-on-one conversations with staff, such as ‘pop-up’ style chats with dancers as they relaxed in their lunch breaks. “We told the dancers in advance that we would be located in the cafeteria off the main dance studios, and that if they wanted, they could come over and help us,” says Stein. “We wanted to do it in a lo-fi way, setting up boards with questions on them, such as what is their vision of The National Ballet and what are the most important qualities to express in a new brand? We also had images and words they could express they liked or didn’t like by putting a red or green dot next to them! It was playful and something which resonated well with very creative people.”

Fascinatingly, one of the key words that emerged from these conversations was that the ballet should be ‘bold’. Stakeholders also wanted the ballet to not just be contemporary but to retain its classical heritage in a different way. “It was about being classical and unexpected,” says Bale. “We can still be classical, but we don’t have to do what is expected of a classical company.”

Immersion in the culture and history of The National Ballet was another key part of the research.

“The Bruce Mau team went deep into our archives, which date back to 1951,” says Bale. “They also visited our wardrobe department to see how costumes are made and came to our shows as audience members. They absorbed who we were.”

Also from the research, BMD came across the concept of the ‘uncertainty gap’ as a barrier to attending the ballet. New audiences were unsure of what to expect from a performance and if they will enjoy it, leading many to feel that ballet is not for them.

Stein adds, “All of this work really framed what we wanted the visual identity and design to be. We found the commonalities across the research and then articulated that going forward.”

Flexible theatre

The main pillar of the new identity is the ‘Storyteller’ concept, which positions The National Ballet of Canada wordmark as an actor in its own right. “Rather than having a wordmark just sitting at the bottom of a page, we wanted to make it a protagonist in the story,” says Stein. “It’s The National Ballet speaking to the audience directly.”

With this approach, the organisation can describe themes and stories in a narrative that flows directly from the wordmark. The National Ballet of Canada “invites”, “welcomes”, “presents” “as a collective entity, playing an active part in lifting the curtain and drawing us in”.

The narratives can be evocative, such as Swan Lake’s “what would you do for love”, or charming, such as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’s “falls further down the rabbit hole”.

Stein says that a contemporary serif, Eiko, was chosen for its “strength and beauty, and as a contrast to the typeface used in the mark and narrative applications.” She adds it is “robust, open and has an invitational, welcoming quality to it.”

For colour, BMD chose a palette consisting of a trio of ‘vibrant, jewel-toned colours’ – green, orange and blue – to actively counter gendered notions of ballet like pinks and pastels.

She adds that motion was also critical for a ballet organisation. As such, it developed a set of motion templates that would allow The National Ballet to easily change text, images and video. It also uses the ‘approachable’ sans serif typeface, Haffer, in lower case as ‘the dynamic spacing between the words brings implied movement to the mark, even when it is still’.

Bale says the Storyteller design was one of three BMD put forward to a series of townhall presentations and finally to The National Ballet of Canada board. “It was certainly my favourite. The storyteller concept is powerful and gives us so much flexibility to come up with short and amazing narratives,” she says. “I love that The National Ballet is always in the conversation as part of the new identity and graphically it looks great.”

Stein adds that another of the three designs, which included the creation of a monogram – NBOC – was also incorporated. “It was intriguing to The National Ballet board, so we are using it in small scale spaces,” she says. “It shows how helpful it is to show multiple concepts.”

One ballet favourite that the redesign has failed to, well, crack is that perennial Christmas favourite, Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Nutcracker’. “It is a unique property that we tried to fit into this brand, but it just did not work,” says Bale. “So, we created a unique new brand for Nutcracker that is more festive, family and sparkly.”

Indeed, The National Ballet of Canada’s main season typically begins around November, making it hard to judge – at this point – the financial success of the redesign.

“It isn’t a busy period, but we have looked at subscription numbers from July to the end of summer and they are up 70% compared with this time last year,” says Bale. “The feedback from the audience and our peers to our new brochure, website and social and digital campaigns has been great. One of our dancers is also making it his mission to take a picture of every billboard he can find with his photo in!”

Next up for The National Ballet and Bruce Mau is potentially a new project to help celebrate the 75^th anniversary of the organisation in 26/27.

It is certainly a partnership Stein is keen to foster. “Having a client who is really ambitious, very supportive and challenging is really important,” she says. “They were huge champions of the work but had no problem in telling us if something wasn’t working. It makes the work better.”