A horse with six legs and a collaboration between downtown neighbors: The Hippodrome State Theatre is changing pace.
“Getting rid of the old H, and trashing the tradition,” said Mark Sexton, the former general manager of the Hippodrome. “This is insane. This is the best thing ever!”
On Tuesday night, the 41-year-old Hippodrome and local marketing team 160over90 revealed their strategy for a complete rebranding of the historic theater, the first one in about 20 years.
Before the reveal, Jessica Hurov, managing director, said the Hippodrome was excited and extremely grateful for the chance to work with its neighbors. 160over90 collaborated and designed the rebranding completely free of charge.
The old design was drawn on a napkin by an old set designer.
“The swoopy H didn’t say anything about us. It was just a fancy H,” she said. “160over90 aims to use our marketing to tell a story.”
At the reveal, Greg Ash, the creative director at the firm that is also handling UF’s rebranding, presented a minimalist logo: “Hippodrome” in a rectangular box with the six-legged silhouette of a horse behind it.
The horse contains symbolic references to the theater’s past, present and future, Ash said. The horse is there because the original meaning of the word hippodrome involves horse racing, and the six legs represent the six founders, the six columns on the building and the six goals of the theater.
He said the point of the logo is to get people to ask questions. If the Hippodrome can use this logo to start a discussion in the community, then 160over90 has done its job.
“I can see this logo on a poster that says threesome on it,” Ash said in relation to a sample production poster for the play “Two Musketeers.”
Before the reveal, Ash said the idea for the rebranding came from conversations between himself, Hurov and other Hippodrome employees last October.
He said he believes the Hippodrome is the face of culture in Gainesville. The old building at the end of the street can be intimidating and isn’t always appreciated as it should be.
He said he wanted the rebrand to display a shift in perspective, make the community look inward, keep the dialogue going and help people be a little less afraid of the old building down the street.
[A version of this story ran on page 10 on 10/9/2014]
