The Welsh National Opera unveiled a new visual identity featuring a marriage of art and the arts.

Hat Trick Design worked on the rebrand alongside Jane Wentworth Associates, who managed the brand strategy work and have a wealth of experience in the arts and heritage industry. The consultants and David Pountney, the Opera’s artistic director, took what was a somewhat standard arts wordmark and transformed it into a work of art.

Pountney says, “WNO's rebranding exercise is an integral part of its overall strategy to make itself as fit as possible to face the many challenges of the current environment. This includes a reinvigorated artistic programme, a rigorously tight management of our financial outgoings, and a positive search for alternative funding. The branding exercise is far more than creating a new logo.”

Hat Trick adopted a brushstroke O by Howard Hodgkin matched with a modern typeface to “reflect the passion and stories of the operas,” according to the agency. The brushstroke motif carries through the branding, lending each representative piece of artwork or opera publication a unique identity.

The branding is intended to elucidate the power of opera to transform lives. The use of brushstrokes in bold, striking colours transforms classic works of art into bold statements on modern arts and culture. 

The Welsh National Opera was founded in 1943 and performs 120 times a year across the UK.