The task

My task was to produce a logo that would fit a graduate of dance who has mastered its disciplines of ballet, contemporary, jazz and musical theatre. An added layer of thought was to incorporate “New Zealand” into the logo.

Constraints and opportunities

This logo was to be a digital first logo and presented the opportunity to be animated.

Inspiration

I decided early on to incorporate ballet and contemporary dance as the dance disciplines. The fluidity of ballet would combine with the sudden changes of direction and speed in contemporary dance, allowing the logo to “unfurl” like a streamer that dancers carry. Lastly the logo would be in the shape of a kiwi bird, which is instantly associated with New Zealand.

Production

The wordmark is produced in the font, Bely, and slightly customised. It gives a chunky, sophisticated design that compliments the sharp angles of the logomark.

The logomark is an abstract representation of a kiwi bird. In places it fluctuates in width and changes direction both fluidly and sharply, to portray the similarities of a dance performance. It is placed off-centre to the wordmark to provide tension and again portray similarities of a dance performance.

The logo is animated to unfurl.

The colour palette is Earthy and rustic in tone to try to compliment both dance disciplines and look equally at home in an opera house or an urban court.

Process

The logo went from exploratory sketch to final render over a period of a few weeks: