Theatre Raleigh ACT
I spent years helping Raleigh ACT grow before reimagining what its brand could look like as it became part of something bigger.
I first started working with Raleigh ACT in 2018, building their original website and helping establish their online presence from the ground up. Over the next several years, my role expanded into teaching, video editing, and ongoing design and content work, as the website evolved from a simple information hub into a full digital home for the organization, handling class registration, ticket sales, and community engagement behind the scenes. By the time I left in 2022, I had helped shape nearly every piece of how the organization presented itself online.
Raleigh ACT was my first real client, and in many ways, the relationship that taught me what it actually means to be one. I had been a student there myself before stepping in, initially as a favor, to rebuild a website that wasn't serving the business the way it could. What started as a small act of "let me show you what I can do" grew into five years of learning, teaching, and building alongside them, applying every new skill I picked up along the way to help a small business grow its digital presence from the ground up. I helped move the organization toward a more complete online resource, giving students and families a central place to access class materials, music, and notes that previously didn't exist in one place. It's the client I feel I grew the most with, and the one that gave me the confidence to take on everything that came after.
In 2023, Raleigh ACT was acquired by Theatre Raleigh, bringing two organizations with distinct identities under one roof. While their color palettes were aligned, the two brands still read as fairly separate, so I took it on as a personal design project to explore what a more unified system could look like.
0 to launch
I designed a full identity system for both brands, Theatre Raleigh and Theatre Raleigh ACT, built to live side by side with intention rather than coincidence. The concept gave Theatre Raleigh a cleaner, more modern look, while Theatre Raleigh ACT kept the same typeface family but leaned into a sense of playfulness and wonder fitting for its younger, camp-style audience. I researched the regional theatre landscape as part of the process, including organizations like North Carolina Theatre and its conservatory, which lean more toward Broadway-caliber training, to make sure Theatre Raleigh ACT's identity stood apart by embracing a different value: helping kids step outside their comfort zone and learn through theatre, not just perform in it.
5+ years
of ongoing work with the organization
2 brands
designed to work as one
This project let me step back into a brand I know well and ask what it could become next. It's a reminder that good design doesn't always wait for a client brief, sometimes it starts with noticing an opportunity and building the case for it yourself.
