Vivo Performing Arts Comes Alive With a Hand-Painted Identity Built for the Energy of Live Performance

After more than eight decades as Celebrity Series of Boston, the venerable arts organization enters its next chapter as Vivo Performing Arts, unveiling a new name and visual identity created in partnership with Colossus. The project marks a decisive recalibration for a 100-year-old institution seeking to honor its legacy while opening its doors wider to contemporary audiences across Greater Boston.

The new identity grew from an eighteen-month strategic-planning process rooted in research, listening, and direct community input, including surveys with more than 600 respondents and in-depth interviews with artists, supporters, audience members, and peer organizations. From that work, the organization defined a core goal centered on clarity and inclusion, shifting away from the static weight of “celebrity” toward the shared, kinetic experience of live performance. The name Vivo, drawn from the Latin vivere, meaning “to live,” reflects that living exchange between artist and audience.

“As we look to the future, we recognized that our name needed to fully express our values of joy, equity, integrity, curiosity, and collaboration,” said Gary Dunning, president and executive director.

Typography anchors the system through a deliberate tension between past and present. Bricolage Grotesque, designed by Mathieu Triay, brings buoyancy and idiosyncrasy, while ABC Diatype from Dinamo provides structural clarity and durability. Triay describes Bricolage as “a historical and cultural Frankenstein’s monster created from the DNA of Mayenne Sans and body parts pillaged from Antique Olive and Stephenson Blake Grotesques,” a fusion that mirrors an organization grounded in history while actively courting modern relevance.

Color, characterized by saturated hues and monochromatic gradations, form a palette without a hierarchy, allowing each color to stand on its own. The approach reflects the diversity of Vivo’s programming across music, dance, and performance, creating a visual language that stays flexible while remaining unmistakably bold.

Illustration also features prominently in the work. The Colossus design team built a custom tool kit using acrylic paint on paper and created in real time while listening to a wide range of musical compositions. Each mark responds to rhythm, tempo, swell, and harmony, favoring feeling over rigid form to capture the visceral reaction to live art and performance.

The logo completes the system with a hand-painted wordmark featuring organic, intentionally imperfect letterforms. Lowercase typography reinforces accessibility and warmth while the absence of a separate icon invites interpretation. The result foregrounds humanity and work-in-progress energy, aligning the brand with the visceral nature of performance itself.

“There’s something incredible about live performance and the way it can immediately transform how you feel,” said Allison Doherty, GM of Design at Colossus. “We wanted to build an identity system that felt as alive as the art itself, capturing that shared energy of being there in that moment together. Working with an organization with such an incredible legacy of excellence was both inspiring and humbling.”

The Vivo Performing Arts identity launches publicly on January 8, 2026, alongside the new website. The remainder of the 2025–26 season will carry both names to ensure continuity, with full integration planned by April 2026 in advance of the 2026–27 season.

“While ‘Celebrity Series’ served us well for decades, ‘Vivo Performing Arts’ captures the living, vital heart of what we do,” Dunning said. “It creates a more inclusive environment, inviting everyone from longtime audiences to first-time attendees, to feel that this community is for them.”

Source: Colossus

  Boston, Branding, Colossus, Visual Identity, Vivo Performing Arts