San Giorgio Opera Company - Kathleen Buckner

Opera is an art form that I care about deeply. As a classically trained opera singer, I have a close connection to the world of music and performance with greatly informed my decisions about how to go about creating the world of the San Giorgio Opera Company. This project began as a class assignment for a typography class in 2022, and has developed into a passion project that continues to grow and evolve to this day. It also continues to bring me endless joy and delight.

Backstory & Logo Design

The logo of the San Giorgio Opera Company (SGOC) is sleek and modern, but just because the logo looks modern, doesn’t mean there isn’t an extended history behind this fabricated company. There is a lot of lore and backstory that I developed to help me understand what the audience and brand of the company would be. SGOC is located in San Giorgio La Molara in Italy, which is the home town of my paternal great-grandfather. He loved opera, as did my maternal grandfather, and dedicating an opera company to his city made it feel even more special, which is why I consider this project as more than a school project.

San Giorgio Opera Company Backstory

The San Giorgio Opera Company (SGOC) first opened its doors in the fall of 1836 in San Giorgio La Molara, Benevento, Italy. Its original structure was destroyed during an earthquake in 1962, but the Opera House was rebuilt by architect Aldo Rossi. In addition to rebuilding the original building, Rossi also designed the Rossi Hall. Rossi Hall is the home of our modern productions and fundraising events (except our Opening Gala which is still held at the Main San Giorgio Teatre [MSG]).

For more than 180 years, SGOC has brought opera to the community of San Giorgio La Molara. Through fires, floods, earthquakes, wars, and pandemics we have not stopped sharing music with the people of San Giorgio and we are excited to continue this tradition for our 2023-2024 season.

2023-2024 Season: August to June

Barber of Seville – Gioachino Rossini – MSG – AUGUST
Nixon in China – John Adams – Rossi Hall – NOVEMBER
Hansel und Gretel – Engelbert Humperdinck – Children’s Room (Educational Outreach) – DECEMBER
Wozzeck – Alan Berg – Rossi Hall – MARCH
Don Giovanni – Johannes Chrisostomus Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – MSG – APRIL
The Goose Girl – Thomas Pasatieri – San Giorgio Public Amphitheater – MAY

The Logo

The SGOC logo went through several iterations, but eventually landed in its sleek form. The pictures below show the current version of the logo, and four different iterations over time to show how it took form. In my research about opera company logos, I discovered that most theaters and opera companies in Italy use a crest of some kind. Additionally, other companies use seriffed font for the official logo, and sans-serif font for the website, and other media. I decided to stick with a sans-serif font for the official logo because the shape of the ‘S’ is meant to imitate the fabricated interior of the company’s modern theatre, which is a recent addition to the opera company’s campus.

Iteration 1 of the SGOC logo was meant to evoke ideas of history and nobility, but the laurels (which are a symbol in the city’s actual crest) and dark circle did not effectively communicate those concepts. While I still liked the idea of a shape around the wordmark, I decided that something lighter might be more accessible.
Iteration 2 of the logo took the story of the city’s name sake, Saint George, into consideration. One of the famous stories about Saint George is that he fought and defeated a dragon. Since I was looking for a more simplistic design, the idea of a dragon was set aside, but a shield, which is also used in crests and coat-of-arms, could serve as a better representation of the city’s history in the logo.
Iteration 3 of the logo smoothed out the shield shape, and adjusted the height and width to fit better around the wordmark. While these adjustments achieved their goal, the overall look of the logo still felt too heavy and unbalanced.
Iteration 4 of the logo removed the shield shape all together and replaced it with a square shape in a last ditch effort to keep the idea of a container shape surrounding the wordmark. This final attempt at a container shape left the logo in a literal box. This iteration feels boring and devoid of the fluid movement that the unconfined wordmark has.

Poster Design

The operas featured in the season posters for SGOC are all operas I have either performed in, or watched in full. All of the names on the posters are randomly generated except for the composters of the operas. I had a lot of fun selecting the operas for the season, and then creating a visual context for what the production could look like. The abstract piano keys motif is a recurring visual aspect that ties all the posters together. The piano keys will also be a major element of the season program. All of the images on the posters do not belong to me and are considered FPO (for position only).

Ad Mockups

Select posters were then turned into the mockups featured below. I particularly enjoyed reconfiguring the “Nixon in China” poster to accommodate the bus mockup’s needs.

Additional Work in Progress

This passion project is a labor of love for no one in particular, and sometimes projects started take time to complete. The spreads below are from the season program that is a work in progress. A season program for an opera company or symphony is a large publication that is meant to be used for the duration of the season, which typically lasts for a year. These programs often have ads from local businesses, as well as letters and acknowledgements from important figures in the organization.

The ads in the program are based on previous class projects, like a major project from my first typography class wherein we created several book covers across several genres of book that all had the same title, “The Hidden Channel”. Other ads are from a different typography project where our class made it’s own magazine about conspiracy theories called “If I Had a Nickel” and are a little more silly or eccentric. Since this is still a work in progress, I hope to continue to add to the repository of projects that I can pull ads from.

In the season program spreads below, you can see that there are some pages that are in progress, but also an understanding of how things will be played out.

All of the images in the program do not belong to me and are considered FPO (for position only).

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