Christopher A. Ritter channels motion and emotion in his speculative rebrand of Cincinnati Ballet

While brand strategist and creative director Christopher A. Ritter is a self-described artistic person who “frequents museums, performances, and supports cultural institutions,” there was something about Cincinnati Ballet that hadn’t quite grabbed his attention. “I saw it as a branding problem,” he notes. “By all accounts, the Cincinnati Ballet has a great reputation,” he continues, “but it’s never connected with me personally.” This served as the starting point for his speculative rebrand for the organisation, viewed through the lens of Ritter’s position as an outsider to ballet. “I hadn’t actually seen a ballet performance before,” he reveals, viewing this fresh-eyed approach as a strategic advantage to help him tackle what he identifies as a broader crisis in arts organisation branding – the mismatch between institutional presentation and experiential reality. “Ballet already carries an innate sense of class and aesthetic, but it can sometimes lack cultural relevance for younger audiences,” he says, highlighting that ballet is dramatic, exciting, powerful, and beautiful – “What else could you want to start with to create a brand?”

Through extensive research, Ritter identified three key audience segments – new younger audiences seeking immersive experiences, traditional ballet enthusiasts who value craft and choreography, and donors who need to feel their support makes a meaningful impact. With these demographics in mind, his resulting identity system is built on fluidity and emotion. Moving away from rigid systems, it is anchored with dynamic symmetrical grids borrowed from photography and painting, creating what Ritter describes as “a more elegant, free-flowing feel – similar to ballet”. Likewise, the typography – using Ultra Kuhl Type Foundry’s Albra, Albra Display, and Albra Grotesk – employs blurred effects to create visual depth and abstraction, giving space for interpretation while communicating “a sense of wonder, an emotion necessary for the enjoyment of fine art.”

Ritter adds another layer to his proposed brand world with a collaboration with streetwear brand Aimé Leon Dore. “The concept is intentionally aspirational,” he explains, “but I saw Aimé Leon Dore as a compelling collaboration partner for a few key reasons. What first caught my attention was the company’s pride in being from Queens – not just New York City.” With Cincinnati’s nickname as The Queen City, this provided a moment of symmetry in the language. “That detail felt culturally specific and emotionally resonant,” Ritter explains, seeing an opportunity to “elevate Cincinnati’s cultural image through fashion, with the Ballet taking on a leadership role in how the city expresses its identity through style.”

The concept extends beyond just Aimé Leon Dore to incorporate other Cincinnati-based brands into a limited capsule collection including the Cincinnati Reds, Tide, King Records, Formica, and Skyline Chili creating what Ritter envisions as “a bridge between high taste and hometown culture – and a dose of global cool that Cincinnati hasn’t quite claimed yet.”