YCN - Royal Opera House

I first started by looking at the Royal Opera House itself. This would give me an idea of the space that I'm trying to get young audiences interested in. The building itself is beautiful, looking both traditional and contemporary at the same time with the old stone architecture and columns, juxtaposed with the glass addition on the side. This contemporary addition to the building keeps it looking fresh and stops the building looking like a government building.

The interior is rich with colour and lighting, and looks incredibly formal. 

It's easy to see how people can think of the Opera as stuffy and elitest when a quick google search of the Opera shows high-class attractive people wearing expensive custom made garments. The attire could be one of the main things that put people off- the idea that you have to spend a huge amount of money to attend the shows. Highlighting the truth that you can wear anything that is remotely smart-casual (shirt and jeans is absolutely fine) could be a direction to take.

highly symbolic and somewhat pretentious advertisements like this do nothing to market the ROH towards 20-30 year olds. The use of Didot and dark dramatic colour palettes also makes the Opera less attractive to the younger audience- it looks as though a knowledge of the Opera is important to be able to appreciate the art form. 

Again dramatic colour palettes and imagery make the Opera look uninviting to anyone not interested already in the art form, so the campaign I produce must look drastically different. A vibrant use of colour and type will be key.

Here, being straight forward and using the word 'modern' works for a new audience. The clean typeface prevents the ad from looking too stuffy and pretentious as it does in the earlier advertisements, and the involvement of Topshop and patterned garments as the imagery would attract people in fashion by mixing their current interests with the Opera. This technique is very interesting- by using what culturally engaged 20-30 year olds are already interested in with the Opera, they would be more easily targeted.

The submission required statements on why I chose the brief, and an explanation of my concept.

300 Word concept explanation

The opera is a traditional art form in need of contemporising. My design showcases this by taking one of the traditional elements of the opera – the attire (specifically the bow-tie) and designing it in a contemporary way, with vibrant patterns and colours- rebelling against the stuffy and formal stereotype currently associated with the art form. This is paired with emotive language which would resonate with culturally aware young adults, telling the audience directly what the opera is/has become:

EXCITING. POWERFUL. ALIVE.

The type is following the ROH guidelines, using Gotham in various weights.

The idea is centered around a 3D medium, the bowtie. This lends itself well to 3d installations and events which would promote the venue and art form. ROH could set briefs for art students nationally to design and create their own bow-ties, which would be submitted to be part of an exhibition held at the Royal Opera House. This drives interest in Opera by association as the people submitting to the exhibition would be the target audience of culturally aware young adults. Events such as this pick up interest very quickly through universities and on social media. Gotham is used throughout to ensure continuity with the Royal Opera House’s other media.

300 Words on why I chose the brief

As a fan of classical music, this brief spoke to me immediately. Advertising is an area of design I am very interested in so this brief was a perfect mix of my interests. I also felt that this brief was particularly challenging which I liked, as breaking existing preconceptions can be very difficult. I am very excited by the idea of getting other people involved and interested in different art forms, especially ones that go unappreciated by many such as Opera. As an existing fan of Opera, my view of the brand hasn't changed much, however I find it invigorating that the Royal Opera House is trying to get younger people involved with the art form. If the campaign is successful I'll have more people to talk about it to!