DC-based Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is nationally known for pushing artistic limits in advancing the cause of new plays and playwrights. They wanted a new brand to re-establish themselves as long-standing, inside-the-beltway outsiders. We worked collaboratively with the client to develop new strategic positioning and mission statements for the theatre, settling on "rousing, visceral epiphanies" as the central creative idea behind the theatre's mission.
Taking inspiration from street protests and guerrilla artists, I designed an expressive new brand identity from the ground up, including logo, typefaces, custom glyphs, backgrounds and marks. It's a little bit Banksy and little bit Subcomandante Marcos.
In addition to a new brand identity, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company wanted a fresh take on the marketing imagery for their historic 35th season. I developed poster concepts, from the first sketches to art directing the photoshoot. The work garnered attention from theatre and design publications both local and national — and re-energized an iconic creative organization as well as their dedicated audience base.
Two years later, I collaborated with the Woolly Mammoth team again, this time to create images that conjured the rousing and provocative experiences that audiences could expect in Woolly's 37th season.
Production challenges included gray-scale makeup, custom-painted canvas backdrops for five of the images and a home-built spacesuit.
Photography by Cade Martin
A personal career highlight, the poster for Baby Screams Miracle was featured in a New York Times column that recognizes outstanding theater poster designs. Behind the Poster
The new brand consciously recalls messages of protest in street art, surrealism, and early punk album covers.
In a board retreat that followed the rebranding, the theatre co-founder and artistic director called the new mission and identity "one of the greatest gifts in the history of the theatre," and said that he uses that phrase "rousing, visceral epiphanies" to guide all his decisions about the theatre.
Video by Aaron Fisher and Jason Colston
