A Theatre for Everyone
The Ludowy Theatre (literally: People's Theatre, Polish: Teatr Ludowy) is one of the most important contemporary Theatres in Krakow. It’s history goes back to the 1950s and creation of Nowa Huta – a large social realist district planned
as a center of heavy industry.
We started our creative process from recollecting the visual history of Ludowy Theatre, analysing historic logotypes, posters, flyers and looking closely at the architectural peculiarities of the theatre building. Social realist architecture and iconic neon on top of the building became the main inspiration for designing a typeface, which became the core of visual identity system, signage and wayfinding.
Ludowy Typeface
Searching for inspiration for the new branding we couldn’t overlook the beautiful neon on the front of the Theatre building. Basing on it’s typography, we designed a variable typeface “Ludowy”, which became the core element for the Theatre’s visual identity, wayfinding and signage.
Since the beginning Ludowy was closely related to the local community. “Ludowy” literally means “People’s” and can be understood as “Popular” – intended for a broad audience, including the working class population of Nowa Huta. In its current repertoire the theatre has plays for children, young adults and adult audiences. There are both avant-garde plays, defining new directions in Polish theatre, and popular mainstream ones.
In 2023 the Theatre opened a new space – TIM (Theatre Institute for the Youth). Its modern building hosts workshops, rehearsals and performances of plays for children and young adults.
We designed wayfinding and signage system for TIM basing on “Ludowy” variable font, thus creating a link between
a historic neon, iconic to Nowa Huta, and a contemporary space.
