Te Kura Maninirau

Te Ao Māori Circus School

Te Kura Maninirau is Aotearoa’s first kaupapa Māori circus school, developed by two trusts – Te Pou Theatre (Māori theatre) and Dust Palace (Tāmaki Makaurau’s most established circus studio). Te Kura Maninirau creates learning pathways for tamariki Māori into the circus art form.

They needed a partner to help create a visual identity that reflected their kaupapa in a contemporary and fun way, to appeal to tamariki. The visual identity design needed to reflect the physicality and joy of the kaupapa.

The colour palette veers away from the primary colours usually associated with circus. We took inspiration from the whenua for this.

The long whakapapa of Māori arts gave us the perfect foundation to build from to create the designs, with a suite of shapes adding to the visual identity.

All of these assets were developed for the client to continue to use across comms themselves, ensuring they hold the mana while giving them plenty of scope to create something both playful, powerful and on-brand.

Channels

Brand Identity, Brand Collateral and Social media