Graphic Design: Théâtre La Licorne by Caserne

Caserne builds a tilted, expressive graphic design and season campaign system for Montreal theater house Théâtre La Licorne.

Live theater isn't supposed to feel comfortable. When you sit in a dark room watching a stage play unfold, the best performances throw your expectations off balance and pull you straight into emotional friction. Montreal studio Caserne tapped right into that nervous energy when reimagining the visual identity and graphic design for Théâtre La Licorne, one of the city's essential cultural venues. Caserne skipped literal unicorn mascots altogether, isolating the sharp angle of the horn and turning that diagonal cut into a core layout rule. The diagonal tilt drives everything. By shifting the axis of the horn across layouts, the system builds deliberate visual instability that mirrors the raw emotions spectators feel during a show.

Angular Tension in Theater Graphic Design

That tilted geometry hits hardest in the 2022 to 2023 season campaign. Caserne wanted the theater to feel open, inclusive, and warm to every kind of audience member while keeping its sharp dramatic edge intact. Nothing in the grid sits flat. Across the season brochure and street poster series built in InDesign and Illustrator, crisp grotesk typography leans and locks against angled color blocks and expressive cast photography. The type does the heavy lifting here. Heavy black display headers collide with warm paper tones and saturated inks, giving each play title its own visual gravity without breaking the parent system.

Look at how the printed booklets and venue graphics behave in the wild. Even when folded into compact program guides or scaled up for Montreal street postering, that diagonal horn cut stays unmistakable from across the sidewalk. It's a smart piece of graphic design that doesn't rely on decorative clutter. Caserne proves that a single geometric shift, backed by disciplined typography and warm art direction, can turn a neighborhood stage into a bold civic landmark.

See the full project by Caserne on Caserne.