ABAO Bilbao Opera

The Bilbao Association of Friends of the Opera was founded by a group of people passionate about establishing an opera in Bilbao. Almost 70 years later, opera is an asset deeply rooted in the city’s cultural agenda. ABAO continues to promote its music through a vast number of performances, projects and activities.

In order to develop a new identity for the institution, the main objective was to preserve the essence found in the phrase “We are all ABAO”. The notion of a renewed community that is determined to seek active participation and see how opera music continues to thrive in the city of Bilbao.

The geometric figure that represents best the sense of belonging to a group or community is the circle. By transforming the O in opera for a circle we were able to create a graphical metaphor that includes the city and the concert hall, merging both together.

Additionally, the dynamism of the circle allowed us to convey the rhythm found in music and in the art scene. Since the logo is a monogram that is not confined within graphical limits, whenever the format allows it, we can play around with it. This creates a dynamic identity that fits to perfection in the digital world.

We kept the use of colour for the content because an opera isn’t just music, it is a scenario that goes from being dark to being filled with colour as the performance evolves. We wanted to reflect this parallelism in the combination of colours. Hence, ABAO is always represented in black and white while the titles of the performances are shown in colour.

We created a vast colour palette so that each performance is related to a colour. This links each title to an encircled illustrated metaphor and to a colour that represents it.

We developed a communication system that coherently connects all the pieces, whether digital or offline, that we create for ABAO. Within this system, the circle is an important asset that is used for every communication. It is a peephole that allows the users to see the nature of the performance.

The rest of the elements found in the communications are explosions of information that transmit the passion for opera music through: colour, depth, typographies and shapes. These are shown in an organised yet dynamic and flexible system.

Finally, the identity of the programs dedicated to the younger ones was also transformed to connect directly with them. In this case, the world of illustration becomes more relevant and playful, widening the margins of imagination. We brought the opera closer to the children by speaking their language and by transforming it into a game.