The Royal Danish Theatre, known in Danish as Det Kongelige Teater, is the national performing arts institution of Denmark, based in Copenhagen. Its visual identity has undergone two significant transformations in the 21st century, first by the Copenhagen design agency e-Types in 2005, and later by an in-house redesign around 2015.
Design and History
In 2005, the Copenhagen-based design agency e-Types created a new corporate identity for the Royal Danish Theatre. The goal was to create a brand that could attract a new and younger audience while keeping the institution’s core audience and heritage intact [1]. The identity was part of a broader cultural approach by e-Types to create a relevant and modern universe for the theatre, linking between the past and the present [1].
The 2005 identity featured a stylized royal crown within a circle as a central element [2]. The crown was described by Danish design publication Kforum as “massive and voluminous in form and expression” [3]. The identity also included a custom typeface called DKT, designed by Jonas Hecksher, partner and creative director at e-Types [2]. e-Types has a history of creating custom typefaces for high-profile clients, including the Royal Danish Theatre, the National Gallery of Denmark and the Danish Broadcasting Network [4].
Around 2015, the theatre introduced a new visual identity developed entirely in-house [3]. The redesign retained the characteristic circle with the crown and red as the primary colour, but rendered them in a much thinner line weight [3]. The red colour was lightened, and the heavy slab-serif typography was replaced with a simple sans-serif [3]. The name was also shortened, with “Kongelig” becoming “Kgl.” [3]. The theatre licensed the typeface Sharp Sans as its primary typeface for the rebrand [5].
Meaning and Symbolism
The crown within the circle has been a persistent element of the theatre’s identity, surviving both the 2005 and 2015 redesigns [3]. The crown serves as a direct reference to the royal status of the institution, which was founded in 1748 as a performing arts venue for the king [6]. The 2015 redesign kept this royal symbol but presented it in a more delicate, minimal form, a shift that Kforum’s design critic described as moving from “proud and grand” to “delicate and fragile” [3].
Typography and Design
The 2005 identity included a custom typeface named DKT, designed by Jonas Hecksher of e-Types [2]. The typeface was described as an “Egyptienne family” with a distinctive, multi-faceted character [7]. The 2015 redesign replaced this custom face with Sharp Sans, a commercial typeface licensed from Sharp Type [5]. The redesign also introduced thin line drawings indicating which of the theatre’s three buildings a given performance takes place in, drawn in the same line weight as the logo’s crown [3].
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