Theresia is a cultural venue in the centre of Ghent, located in a former Carmelite convent. The venue takes its name from Theresa of Ávila, who reformed the Carmelite order in the sixteenth century around a strict, frugal way of living, with members of the order identifiable by a specific shade of brown worn as a habit. In 2021, Studio Studio was invited to propose a visual identity for the opening of the venue, in a brief that asked the new programme to carry its historical site and to operate as a contemporary space in Ghent at the same time.
The identity stays close to the convent it inherits. Two components carry the system: a strict square grid as structure, and a single brown, Pantone 1605 U, drawn directly from the historical colour of the Carmelite habit. From those two elements a gradient system is built up, paired with the typeface Arthemys, which allows the identity to move between the austere logic of the convent and the lighter register of a contemporary venue without breaking either.
