Pentabus Theatre Company

A rebrand for a company that deserved to be seen clearly

Pentabus has spent decades producing new writing and touring it nationally, with a particular commitment to rural communities often overlooked by mainstream theatre. The brief came with a tighter budget than we’d typically work to, but it was exactly the kind of project that excited us. A company with this much creative ambition and history deserved a brand that matched it.

We delivered a full identity: strategy, brand identity, guidelines and tone of voice, and supported the rollout across the organisation’s existing materials and platforms. The brand launched in February 2026.

From an information-dense site to an audience-first one

With the new brand in place, Pentabus’s existing website no longer reflected who they were. The previous site was internally structured and information-dense, built around how the organisation saw itself rather than how its different audiences actually used it.

We began with discovery and strategy, mapping detailed user journeys for each of Pentabus’s key audiences: casual theatregoers discovering a show for the first time, young people and parents engaging with youth and community programmes, and touring venues and partners considering whether to book a production. Each journey was mapped across awareness, engagement, trust and action, identifying exactly what each audience needed to see and do at every stage, and where the existing site was failing them.

That research directly shaped the sitemap and the new site’s information architecture. The redesigned site puts current activity front and centre, with productions, workshops and opportunities immediately visible rather than buried, and clear pathways for booking, signing up, donating and applying. We integrated Mailchimp for mailing list growth and Enthuse for donations, and built the whole site to a WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility baseline from day one.
We provided CMS training, video walkthroughs and documentation so the Pentabus team can manage the site confidently themselves, and supported the studio through launch in June 2026.