A living identity that moves like performance.

Black Swan State Theatre Company is Western Australia’s flagship theatre company that  didn’t come to us for a poster. They came with a provocation: How do you brand a season that refuses to stand still?

From ancient text to contemporary voice, from comedy to grief, from blackout to spotlight, each production carries a distinct emotional weight. The brand needed to hold all of it. Not as one fixed expression, but as a system that could flex with every story it supported.

Barbitta created a responsive identity system designed to behave like theatre itself, dynamic, elastic, and emotionally intelligent. Type could stretch or collapse. Colour could dim or intensify like stage lighting. Graphic elements were treated as atmosphere, not decoration, they need to “breathe” the energy of each production.

At its core is a logo that doesn’t compete, but listens. A visual presence that recedes or amplifies depending on what the story needs. Each campaign was recognisably Black Swan, but never identical. Like a season itself, the brand became a container for change.

This was not a rebrand. It was a reframe. Honouring theatre’s constant motion, and gave the company a voice that is layered, present, and adaptable as the work it brings to stage.