This is the visual identity for the 2023–2024 season of the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, France. This season features a collaboration with Latvian artist Roberts Rurans, who combines historical memory, theatrical imagery, and contemporary interpretation to create an imaginary European medieval theater.
The new identity centers on handcrafted textures. The artist stated that he created rough textures using acrylics on paper, with digital post-processing limited to color adjustments and clean-up. He also emphasized that the majority of his work is completed on paper.
The typographic choice also reinforces the concept. The studio used the Almost Gothic typeface by Jérôme Knebusch of Poem Editions. The typeface straddles the line between Gothic and Roman, and is described as being based on research into the 15th-century Gotico Antiqua style.
The theater continues to reinvent its identity each season. The graphic studio Violaine & Jérémy has been responsible for the theater's art direction, type design, and graphic design since 2015. The seasonally changing approach of collaborating artists, themes, and typefaces accumulates into a single, annual branding system.
In the performing arts world, branding has expanded beyond the perfection of a single poster to become a tool for shaping audience memories. This explains why the theater, which opened in 1876, maintains the timeliness of its old building while incorporating a new language each season.
