The Rep

Rebranding Britain’s longest established building-based theatre

Brand strategy
Brand identity
Brand campaigns
Brand architecture
Brand assets
Brand guidelines
Brand activation
Signage and wayfinding
Art direction

Client

The Birmingham Repertory Theatre, is Britain’s longest established building-based theatre company, with a legacy as a producing theatre, and exceptional venue for live performances for the people of Birmingham and the surrounding areas.

Brief

The Birmingham Repertory Theatre asked Rose to develop a confident and flexible brand identity for the theatre, to reflect the quality of its artistic programming and diversity of local communities. They asked us to help capture the imagination of new audiences – post pandemic – in delivering a revitalised and cohesive experience across all three performance spaces in their central Birmingham venue, whilst retaining the loyalty of their existing customer base. Another key part of their brief to Rose, was to ensure touring productions could deliver an equally consistent audience experience, when they inherit third party artwork from partners.

Solution

In helping The Birmingham Repertory Theatre to define and clarify its brand strategy, Rose were able to realise the theatre's ambition to become more playful, pioneering and popular. We started with the name. Everyone in Birmingham knows the theatre as ‘The Rep’. So we recommended dropping the full name and replacing it with its more memorable nickname. Rose then evolved the Rep's brand identity with a more contemporary and playful visual and verbal language, that could appeal to new audiences, whilst retaining existing ones, with the promise of live entertainment by, with and for the people of Birmingham.

Result

Comparing pre-pandemic figures with the year following the launch of Rose's brand evolution, The Rep saw a revenue increase from ticket sales of 38% and a 13% increase in the diversity of audiences. The 2024 figures are the Rep's highest revenue total in its history – despite having almost 60% of its government grants and supports removed across the same period¹.

¹ The Rep Trustees’ Report and Financial Statements