Concept Poster Campaign for the Cairo Opera House

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CONCEPT POSTER CAMPAIGN FOR THE CAIRO OPERA HOUSE

Contribution in strategy + design

2015

Report compiled and edited by Raghda Moataz

Secondary research by Raghda Moataz and Mariam Tarek

Primary research (survey) by Abdelrahman Eldash and Abdelrahman Elkady

Graphic design (includes posters shown below + app wireframe in the report and excludes report design + other designs in the report) by Yasmine Yusuf

Background:

The task was to study the Cairo Opera House (COH, for short) brand, its communications with followers and visitors of an iconic space combining different kinds of arts and culture – from photography exhibitions to operas and ballets – and to find out what communicational problems they're facing and how we, as designers, can assist in solving them.

Research:

According to the report we made (link below), we found that COH's mission is to become the “symbol of art and culture in Egypt and the world”. However, we also found that COH isn't actually on the list of the top ten opera houses, according to an article by National Geographic.

To understand what was stopping COH from reaching out, we decided to observe and analyse its visual communications and compare them to Sa2yet Elsawy (an indirect competitor for COH in Cairo, since no other opera houses were found) as well as the Sydney Opera House, a major international competitor. We also decided to carry out a survey asking citizens what they think of COH. We carried out the survey in 4 middle to high class areas (as we believed our target group mainly came from these classes): Zamalek, Mohandiseen, Elrehab and Madinet Nasr. A total of 50 participants were surveyed.

Major findings:

1. Participants of ages less than 30 preferred Sa2yet Elsawy. Their reasons were that Sa2yet Elsawy is "not so formal" and "has more variety".

2. 8 out of 50 participants of ages 20-25 years old went only once before to COH.

3. 28 participants said that the first thing they think of when they hear about COH is "classy". 5 participants said "old fashioned".

For more details on the above, check the full report here:

https://issuu.com/imyasmineyusuf/docs/th502_brand_identity_assign_1.docx

Concept:

Based on the above, we decided that we needed to appeal to younger potential visitors who chose other places because they were less formal and had more variety.

Hence, we created a poster campaign (keeping in mind that the posters would be placed in areas where our target group was present, as well as online) which showed the variety COH offers (different kinds of events, for young and old) in a way that accentuated a contemporary and young vibe, all the while maintaining COH's visual style (based on the visual analysis we made, since no brand style guide was found).