We are super proud of our heritage and simply love design from the art deco era. Our friends at Draw cottoned onto this pretty darn quick and spent many hours researching the building, the era and our organisation before coming up with our new brand materials. We chose to write this little article so you can see the level of detail woven into every element, each carefully thought out and steeped in our history. Here’s the story from our branding guru Chris…
The people behind The Capri have worked passionately for many years to restore the building to its original 1941 art deco condition.
When approaching the visual identity of The Capri, it was really important to take inspiration from the Cinema’s past, yet make it relevant for today.
Above shows an insight into the original signage and how the building was identified when it was once called ‘The Goodwood Star.’
Star Theatres was once a great franchise that spread across all of South Australia and The Capri was the last of its cinemas, purpose built during the beginning of World War II. A part from The Capri, The Piccadilly and the Odeon Star still remain as working cinemas that were once apart of The Star Theatre franchise. Each individual theatre had its own unique architectural look, and the signage or ‘logo’ of the era was less about a repeated identifiable mark, and more about what suited the building’s architecture.
The Capri’s logotype was custom built to reflect the letter shapes of original 1941 art deco sign which once sat on top of the building in bold neon.
After a long process, it became clear that The Capri really couldn’t only have one singular mark or way to identify itself either. Since 1941 the cinema has never actually used a logo in the repeated way our culture does today, so why should it now? When you come to think of how The Capri is identified, it’s something that a few lucky people know already. That grand beautiful building, the deep rich sound of the WurliTzer greeting you to a show. It’s the hand painted signs, original art deco, the popcorn, the volunteers, and the nostalgia of entertainment. All that was lacking was a way to take the rich personality of what was happening inside and make it visible.
The one thing that has always been there amongst the various states of different signage, flyers and advertising over the decades was sitting patiently on top of the building. Remnants of the Star Theatre, The Capri’s star became key to the Cinema’s brand identity.
A star is the light that shines down on us from years ago in the past, and after discovering that one of The Capri’s core values was ‘nostalgia’, the star became a fitting reminder. That of the great times held at The Capri, the significant tie to Hollywood and the age of glitz and glamour. Something we built on is that the star is also an asterisk that can be used*
*to explain things in more detail.
One last little challenge was to help the Theatre Organ Society of Australia tie in with The Capri’s identity as they are very much the great organisation of people that work hard volunteering to run the cinema, and have since 1978. The sound of the WurliTzer organ is hard to deny, and was a great challenge bringing its personality into the brand’s look and feel.
Some colour inspiration came from the architecture of the building itself and what you can find at the cinema. The bright colours of the WurliTzer’s keys, and the Cinema’s neon signs.
Typography chosen for the brand has actually been revived from the original 1941 flyer announcing the opening of the new Goodwood Star. The fonts Kauffman Script and Vogue were popular deco metal cut fonts used by printers in Adelaide of the time. VF Sans was the closest font alive today to the lost Vogue, originally designed for Vogue Magazine in the 1930s.
Many of the shapes and graphics in the design take inspiration from the grand original art deco features of the cinema.
The Capri’s star also acts as an asterisk. What was created here is a way for the cinema to have a bit of fun, and whenever the need arises to say something, The Capri can have a go at communicating through the rich movie quotes which have played inside the building and a part of the Cinema’s personality since its inception.
Many of the volunteers and staff were a big part of the updated Capri brand refresh. Our lead designer Chris Harris from Draw would like to acknowledge all the help from the great people of The Capri, in particular Ross Lange, and John Thiele from TOSA for all their guidance in the Cinema’s history. The great cinema master / manager man Rob Jordan for bringing it all together collaborating with the team, encouraging and building on many peculiar ideas. Designer Lucinda Roberts for research, strategy, and support being a second set of eyes and brain on the project. Last but not least the very talented web designer and developer Sarah Brown from Esbie for bringing the huge website project to life. Thank you!