Toronto Fringe Rebranding Collage - Annotation
This post discusses an image document:
Tiziana, Tanja. Toronto Fringe Cover Series. 2017. Toronto. https://fringetoronto.com/.Accessed July 2017.
The Toronto Fringe Festival program showcased four different covers artist this year, photographed by Tanja Tiziana. The artists (clockwise starting top left) are fringe volunteer Juliana Romanyk, drag artist Beardoncé, cabaret and past fringe performer Ryan G. Hinds, and dancer Denise Solleza, each photographed in urban Toronto environments. These photos are part of the Toronto Fringe rebranding which did away with the retro carnival logo that echoed Fringe’s old base camp in the Honest Ed’s alley and refocused on a clean, modern aesthetic. The logo (shown in the top left photo) is simple yet distinctive with a modern sans serif font, inline with the new direction Fringe seems to be taking. From paperless tickets to a commitment to diversity and accessibility, as well as a relocation to the more central Scadding Court Community Centre, Fringe has branded itself with artists that are representative of the “new voices” they claim to support. With visible minorities and edgier, artistic styles, along with bright colours and clear Toronto backgrounds, Tiziana’s photos help modernize the entire festival. Each of these artists has also been involved in public fringe events — Beardoncé performed at “Slay Day” and Hinds hosted the Fringe tales competition — as well as being active on social media, advertising the inclusivity of this year’s Fringe. The visuals and actions all work together to showcase the path of Toronto Fringe’s new artistic director Kelly Straughan — one of a more colourful, modern, diverse Toronto Fringe, representative of the city in which is lives.
For those wishing to chart the progression and development of the Toronto Fringe, the changes to the Fringe’s visual image and branding summarize the alterations of the Fringe itself. This is the first year that Fringe has implemented a cover artist — let alone four — placing the attention on the performers. Rather than advertising itself as a mass entity, this year Toronto Fringe focuses on the individual. It could be argued whether or not the Fringe has fully captured the diversity and acceptance it presented in this photo series, however the photos do represent the desire of the fringe. As stated in their 2015-2018 strategic plan the Fringe is making new commitments to leadership, sustainability, visibility, diversity, and innovation, and Tiziana’s photo series captures these goals and this future hope in a visually arresting, dynamic series.
