Arena Stage
Using Strong Visuals to Create Brand Equity

The Challenge: After five-decades of critical success, Arena Stage’s sales were slumping and recognition of the Arena brand was at an all-time low.

The Solution: MiresBall created an easy-to-understand hierarchy for the Arena Stage brand: a clean, powerful identity that functioned as a framework for presenting the theater’s seasonal productions. Original works were commissioned that brought forth the essence of each production, and Arena Stage’s unmistakable visual signature provided supporting continuity. Expressive, bold and surprisingly straightforward, the updated brand re-energized the media, Arena Stage’s staff and a new generation of theatergoers. Today, we continue to shape the Arena Stage brand—most recently, developing outreach tools to support a $120 million capital campaign.

The Result: By the end of our first season working with Arena Stage, the theater had amassed the highest-grossing sales in its history, and record numbers of donors had pledged their support—reversing a six-year decline.