Manam Theatre Festival
Envisioning a festival uniting communities with their shared love for the stage and the human experience.
The Manam Theatre Festival is a month-long celebration of contemporary and classic theatre, curated to spark dialogue, discovery, and connection. Held across Hyderabad, it brings together local troupes and international performers, offering a space where community and craft meet. An initiative by The We_Us Collective under the Almond House Foundation, the festival is rooted in the idea that the arts can build bridges across age groups, perspectives, and cultures.
Brief
To create a visual identity and communication system for a theatre festival deeply rooted in its city, yet expansive in spirit. The identity had to reflect the plurality of performances, people, and perspectives, while inviting the festival to newer audiences, artists, and collaborators from across India and the world.
Challenge
Theatre can often feel niche or inaccessible—how do we design a system that opens it up? The festival featured four packed weekends, 17 performances, 16 fringe events, and 4,000+ attendees spread across multiple venues in Hyderabad. Beyond aesthetics, the identity had to function as a wayfinding tool, aid decision-making, and accommodate layered communication. We also needed to differentiate between homegrown and visiting troupes, and maintain freshness across the month without losing familiarity.
Solution
The identity was built around a core visual metaphor: pixels as people. Each unit represents an individual—when they come together, they form a vibrant, living mosaic of community. This flexible visual system allowed us to scale across formats while retaining cohesion. A tiered colour-coding system helped distinguish weekends, aiding recall and navigation. Typography, layout, and graphic cues were designed to be consistent yet playful, functional, but never dry.
Communication Approach
Messaging revolved around values of inclusivity, participation, and joy, centering keywords like belong, play, grow, and create. The tone was conversational and warm, inviting people to experience theatre not just as spectators, but as participants in a larger cultural conversation.
Social & Digital Rollout
Content strategy for social media introduced the festival’s key voices, founders, curators, performers, and offered glimpses into the venues, the city, and the evolving art form. The visual language was adapted to reflect this dynamic spirit, celebrating both the individual and the collective.
