Rabbithole vibrantly rebrand Hyde Park Picture House, the world’s one and only gaslit cinema

Culminating in a considered, kaleidoscopic curation of colour, typographic freedom and lozenges, Rabbithole’s vivid rebrand for Hyde Park Picture House – the world’s only remaining gaslit cinema – embodies not only the legacy of the cultural institution, but the excitement and vibrancy of cinema itself. Taking cues from familiar movie-going visuals, the Leeds and Glasgow-based design studio led the brand with a cigarette burn-shaped lozenge, the type seen in the corner of projections to signal an upcoming change of reel. Becoming the centre point of the identity, the lozenge form moves, adapts and evolves, shifting position, hierarchy and contents in response to varying contexts – notably changing type and colour choice throughout, with Colophon Foundry’s Basis Grotesque laying the typographic foundations as the identity’s primary typeface. 

“Basis has an informal and friendly feel that is well suited to an inclusive and accessible independent cinema,” Director Mark Martin tells us, discussing the use of type across the brand, which sees different typefaces and typographic genres being used within the cinema’s distinct cinematic arms – from throwback cinema screenings to horror film nights. “We worked with the director of each strand to find a font which they felt represented their curation,” he continues, “the font choice for each programme strand playfully captures its genre’s characteristics,” totalling nine different typefaces, including a bespoke display sans serif.

“For example, the gothic Bradley font fittingly represents the ‘Creatures of the Night’ cult horror strand,” he details, “and the rounded and slightly squiggly Carl Marx font captures the innocence of the ‘Hyde and Seek’ family strand” – a duo that strikingly evidences the thematic range achieved by the brand, whilst simultaneously appearing concise, consistent and cohesive.

The studio also used additional typefaces such as Monotype’s Peignot, Practice by Optimo, Hoefler and Frere Jones’ Tungsten, F37’s Bobby, and Fredoka One by Milena Brandao across the cinema’s various curated cinematic strands, implementing them exhaustively across printed and digital spaces.

Their eclectic choice of colour further emboldens the diligent use of typefaces, utilised both as a practical, categorical device, and as a poetic, chromatic reference to cinema’s vibrancy. “There were two reasons for selecting yellow as the primary brand colour,” Martin explains, with its strong, sunshine-like tone taking centre stage throughout. “The first is that it provides some continuity and familiarity with the previous identity,” they note, which also implemented a prominent yellow, “the second is that a bright yellow punches out nicely over film stills and moving images,” a pragmatic choice for competing with the exuberance of the silver screen. “The colours for the programme strands are loosely based on the palette of early 20th-century technicolour films,” Rabbithole conclude, “with each colour being chosen instinctively to fit the tone and content of each strand,” leaving space for the cinema and its dynamic identity to grow and adapt alongside the films they support.

Rabbithole

Hyde Park Picture House