Þ-Leikhúsið

ÁGRIP HÖNNUÐAR // INTRODUCTION

Eftir miklar vangaveltur og rannsóknarvinnu á fortíð og framtíð Þjóðleikhúsins datt ég niður á kenningar Karl Marx og ákvað að nota mér þær að leiðarljósi í þessu verkefni. Samkvæmt kenningum Karls Marx er þjóðernishyggjan komin af hinu ílla og ýtir undir fordóma, misrétti og kapitalisma. Eins og öllum á að vera orðið ljóst í kjölfar þess sem átt hefur sér stað í samfélaginu á síðustu árum er kapítalisminn krabbamein samfélagsins. Ef ekki fæst lækning við honum mun samfélagið fljótt veslast upp og tortíma sjálfu sér.

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After much speculation and research on the past and future of Þjóðleikhúsið (the Icelandic national theatre), I wound up using the theories of Karl Marx as guidelines for the project. According to Marx, nationalism is the root of all evil, enc ouraging prejudice, uneven distribution of wealth and capitalism. Like we all should know by now, examining our current economic situation and the sociological progress of recent years, capitalism is society's cancer. If not cured, our society will wither up and evidently self-destruct.

It was clear that the first steps of the project was to eliminate all that is national about the national theatre. The name itself stood in the way of progress, so minimizing Þjóðleikhúsið down to simply Þ-leikhúsið was a necessary step, as well as modernizing the logo.
Next up was redesigning the building tself, but architect Guðjón Samúelsson left it as a praise to nationalism. The const ruction job was simple enough, bringing down the "basalt column" theme currently in place. The basalt column sculpture in front of the house was also quickly demolished.

The color red that overwhelms the theatre bears an unsettling resemblance to hollywood-like wealth but those kinds of lifestyles are truly capitalism's crown. A black and white color palette is a more proper fitting identity of the building as well as overall minimal design in the manner of the Swiss style. Inside, the carpet will be torn away, replaced by shiny deep-black lack covering the floors, as well as the red seats inside the "Big Stage" will be covered instead with black veal.

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Narfi Þorsteinsson

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REDESIGNING THE BUILDING

The photos above display a fraction of the changes Þ-leikhúsið will undergo.

Ideas revolve around painting the house in a matt black but the pavement and stairway out front with high-gloss lack which then continues inside the hose itself, covering the floors and thus connecting the insides to the world outside.

Þ-leikhúsið's logo will be painted on the front, as shown above.

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LOGO

Below the theatre's new logo can be seen. It makes use of Futura Bold, and the bows symbolize the old theme of theatre, the frowning and smiling masks. The secondary logo is a figurative version.

This logo is meant to help the over-all look of Þ-leikhúsið's published material. Wherever the primary logo isn't needed, this secondary logo helps establishing a graphic conceptual look, as well as providing designers with variations to play around with.

Þjóðleikhúsið's old logo and the minimal evolution into Þ-leikhúsið's main identity.

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TYPEFACE

The official font of Þ-leikhúsið is Futura Std.

Futura Std. Book 8pt. for main text and Futura.Std. Bold 21pt. for headlines.
Futura Std. Book 10pt. will then be used for text of promotional material suchs as A3 posters.

The designers role will be to decide alterations.