Staatstheater Mainz (2014–)

Since 2014, the visual identity of Staatstheater Mainz has been developed by the Berlin-based agency Neue Gestaltung. Applied across posters, season guides, flyers, and digital communication, the identity is built around continuous renewal rather than a fixed graphic system. Each production receives its own visual treatment through photography, illustration, and typography, while recurring elements such as the star logo maintain continuity across the series.

Central to the identity is the use of Swiss Typefaces’ Suisse Int’l and Suisse Works. From the words of the agency:

We introduced Suisse as part of a redesign (2014) of the visual identity in the context of a change in artistic direction. At the time, it was still a relatively lesser-known alternative to Helvetica. We chose it quite deliberately […] because it allows for a kind of visual mediation between grotesque, serif, and slab-serif typologies.

The posters in particular emphasize variation and visual experimentation. Typography changes in scale, weight, spacing, and stability depending on the production, at times becoming deliberately unsteady or fragmented. This approach mirrors the theatre’s broader emphasis on reinvention and the plurality of a multi-genre repertory program.

Neue Gestaltung’s work for Staatstheater Mainz has been awarded multiple prizes along the years. Among them the 2016 Red Dot, the 2017 TDC, the 100 Beste Plakate, and the 2026 Tokyo TDC.