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Hyde Park Picture House

Nationally connected, locally focused community cinema

StrategyIdentityEnvironmentDigitalCampaign
Hyde Park Picture House

The Hyde Park Picture House is a beloved cultural gem in Leeds and the world’s only remaining gas-lit cinema. In 2022, the 1914 cinema reopened after an extensive three-year renovation that restored its ornate interior, improved accessibility, and added a second screen in the basement.


Brief

We renewed HPPH’s brand strategy, visual identity, and website to welcome audiences back after the closure. The challenge was to design an identity that honoured the cinema’s rich heritage while positioning it as a contemporary cultural destination, appealing to a broad range of local film enthusiasts—from midnight cult horror aficionados to arthouse connoisseurs and Saturday morning families.


Design response

At the centre of the identity design is a logo and framing device inspired by the ‘cigarette burn’ cue marks traditionally found on projection film. This references the Picture House’s two historic Cinemeccanica 25mm projectors, which date from cinema’s golden age in the early 20th century.

We used this framing device to create a family of sub-brands that celebrate the diversity of the cinema’s curatorial strands. Each strand captures its genre’s characteristics through font choice and colour inspired by technicolour tones.

A zoetrope-inspired logo animation references the history of moving image and the cinema’s Edwardian roots.

Basis Grotesque by Colophon Foundry serves as the primary typeface, grounding the heritage references in a contemporary and approachable typographic system.


Impact

“Rabbithole were instrumental in helping us understand our core purpose and identify the shared values that make HPPH special. Bringing together the thoughts and ideas of staff, partners, and volunteers across the cinema, and distilling these into a single vision, was hugely rewarding.

Our new identity has provided the Picture House with a unified and coherent voice during a period of significant change and turbulence. It has also helped us engage more effectively with our audiences, resulting in over 11,000 admissions during our first month of opening, more than double our pre-pandemic visitor numbers.”

Ollie Jenkins,
Marketing Manager,
Hyde Park Picture House

We wanted the identity to feel forward-facing rather than pastiche—something that could acknowledge the cinema's extraordinary heritage without becoming trapped in nostalgia. The design honours this history whilst positioning HPPH as a contemporary cultural destination.”

Tim Dee

Creative Director, Rabbithole

Rabbithole were instrumental in helping us understand our core purpose and identify the shared values that make HPPH special. Bringing together the thoughts and ideas of staff, partners, and volunteers across the cinema, and distilling these into a single vision, was hugely rewarding.”

Ollie Jenkins

Marekting Manager, HPPH

Our new identity has provided the Picture House with a unified and coherent voice during a period of significant change and turbulence. It has also helped us engage more effectively with our audiences, resulting in over 11,000 admissions during our first month of opening, more than double our pre-pandemic visitor numbers.”

Ollie Jenkins

Marketing Director, HPPH