Opera Australia by Interbrand Sydney

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CLIENT

Australia’s national opera com­pany, the largest arts organ­i­sa­tion since its foun­da­tion in 1956, deliv­er­ing over 600 per­for­mances a year. In 2009 Lyn­don Ter­racini as new Artis­tic Direc­tor brought a bold, new vision to the com­pany: to deliver opera to the widest pos­si­ble audi­ence in Australia.

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BRIEF

To rede­fine the Opera Aus­tralia brand to attract new audi­ences. Based on the artis­tic director’s new vision, it should appeal to a con­tem­po­rary Aus­tralia and be avail­able to wider audi­ences than just the opera elite. The new brand def­i­n­i­tion will then inform a new brand iden­tity sys­tem to be deployed across the entire organ­i­sa­tion to bring the brand idea to life.

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APPROACH

We intro­duced a new brand idea, Set­ting Opera Free, to artic­u­late the company’s belief that opera should be for every­one. A new iden­tity sys­tem was cre­ated that could open-up to reveal Opera Australia’s incred­i­ble diver­sity. The logo opens from OA to reveal Opera and Opera Aus­tralia. Every­thing in between the O and A is opera, and is Opera Australia—as won­der­fully unex­pected as that might be.

Inter­brand under­stood what the brand needed very rapidly and thor­oughly, and the exe­cu­tion of their ideas was superb. The new brand­ing has only been out a few days, but already there is a sense from staff and patrons that they are more proud to be asso­ci­ated with the com­pany, and from oth­ers that it’s time to take another look at Opera Aus­tralia. — Geor­gia Rivers, Sales and Mar­ket­ing Direc­tor at Opera Australia