Theater Basel
Posters by Claudiabasel What if a typeface plays the lead role in the branding of Switzerlands biggest Theater?
Each design asset will become a stage where letters come alive and perform. That’s what happened when we crafted the custom type family for the Theater Basel’s brand identity. Working alongside the brilliant minds at Claudiabasel studio, we created something more than just a typeface – we created a typographic performance.
The charm of early grotesques meets swiss typography
As a base for the design, we took the spirit of 20th-century grotesques like Akzidenz Grotesk, Shelter Grotesk and many more and gave it a standing ovation. But the Theater Basel typeface isn’t just nodding to Swiss legends – it’s dancing with them, adding its own contemporary twists and turns.
Comprehensive Type Family Details
The type family includes 7 Grotesque weights in two styles ranging from Thin to Bold, and one matching Roman weight designed to pair with the regular Grotesque weight. Each weight is available in versions with and without ligatures. Supporting a wide range of latin languages, each weight incorporates approximately 560 unique ligature glyphs, totaling around 1,000 single glyphs per weight. We also integrated three-letter ligature combinations in both uppercase and lowercase forms.
Those custom ligatures? They’re like little performance acts, stealing the show in every headline.
Inspired by Armin Hofmann’s iconic use of typography in his Theater Basel posters from the 1960s Hofmann’s approach involved creating pictorial narratives by interconnecting words and letters, forming unique images and occasionally merging letters into uncommon ligatures to emphasize the poster’s message.
Photography: Basile Bornand