The National Ballet of Canada releases anniversary design

In 2024, the brand introduced a new visual identity for the first time in over two decades. The NBOC teamed back up with design studio Bruce Mau Design to celebrate its 75th anniversary season with a special edition identity.

The project builds on the 2024 redesign that a took light and dated identity and turned the NBOC into a modern brand with dark backgrounds, vibrant accent colours and a clean typeface. For the 75th anniversary, Bruce Mau Design took the same values from the new identity and applied them to this project.

Green, blue and orange continue to shine through design elements, serving as backdrops that silhouette ballet dancers in motion. In this edition, blue takes centre stage in the ‘75’ icon, accent text and colour overlays. Photos feature past and present dancers that scale from social media posts to five-metre banners. 

The milestone is not meant to be a one-off commemorative logo, instead positioning  ‘75’ as the narrative, integrated across design assets on posts, merch and programs. Letting this project flow from the 2024 rebrand instead of creating a completely different design allows for flexibility, with the anniversary update becoming a part of the NBOC’s evolution.

“For us, the question wasn’t how to commemorate 75 years, but how to design the next chapter,” says Laura Stein, partner and CCO at Bruce Mau Design. “The National Ballet of Canada has such a powerful legacy, and we wanted the anniversary to live as part of its ongoing story, not as a moment frozen in time, but as a bridge to the present and future.”