Sony Hall

Client:: Sony Hall, Blue Note Music Group
Years:: 2022–2023
Location:: 235 W 46th St, Manhattan
Role:: Art direction
Studio leadership
Identity systems
Marquee type system
Show campaigns
Production
Skills:: Studio Leadership
Brand Architecture
Creative Direction
Project Management

Historic Broadway signage, set in contemporary type.

Project

Sony Hall is a Theater District venue in the Paramount Hotel (Thomas W. Lamb, 1928), on the site of Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe. It needed one recognizable look across a nightly changing calendar.

Challenge

The marquees had gone entirely unused
The venue had no cohesive visual identity in place; its tacky, stock Art Deco graphics needed to be replaced with a contemporary aesthetic

Role

Art director for the venue.

Turned outdated exterior marquees into a typography and billing-card system for changing artists and shows, and project managed the exterior end to end, from lighting and construction to fonts and printers
Developed the venue’s identity from the street inward: the Paramount Hotel entrance, bar and café branding, menus, event programs, lobby screens and festival displays up to 20 by 10 feet
Visual identities and collateral for about 175 performances a year: an estimated 1,900 deliverables
Show art for artists including Yasiin Bey, Talib Kweli, GZA, George Clinton, Seun Kuti and Black Star

Outcome

Established an ongoing brand identity system for designers to use and adhere to across the venue and brand, backed by brand guidelines and an asset library
Calendar programs rebranded with QR codes linking to Ticketmaster raised scans and click-through 60%, building a subscriber pool for remarketing
The window installations are still in place

Marquee