Problem
Tereza and David are a couple. They met and married through Tango, the Argentinian dance.
Having been proficient dancers for quite some time now, they had learned that by dancing tango, humans could develop strategies and vocabulary that could empower them to strengthen and grow meaningful relationships with other fellow humans.
Driven by the need to share this with the world they set themselves to start a class where they would teach and mentor everything they had learned with tango.
However there was a problem.
People are drawn to tango for different reasons and although Teresa and David accept them all to be valid ones, they knew from the beginning that expectations had to be managed for they were offering Tango as a lifestyle and not as a dance.
Poster illustration by Inês Mendes
Empathize
We needed to bluntly communicate that this kind of teaching and the tango practiced was different from most dancing classes, in particular tango dancing classes.
What was to be taught in these classes was how to bond on the dance floor. How to connect two dancers around tango music and how, together, they should float on the dance floor.
Define
As such the embrace became the theme and the brand of these classes was to be built around it.
Under our theme we would communicate that these classes were about these values and were designed to prepare the dancer to appreciate them and apply them on the dance floors that would equally embrace them.
Steps, sequences, figurines, belonged in other classes and other dance floors.
Teresa and David are defenders of the most traditional and unadulterated tango vocabulary and they believed it had a place in the community. This was their promise and the mission now was to create awareness.
Conclusion
The usage of illustration allows us to signify a certain nostalgia for the old and more traditional values of tango while at the same time communicate intangible values such as intimacy and simplicity. Combined with a simple but powerful color palette we signify passion and exclusivity that we intend to establish a positioning for the brand.
The typeface applied re-enforces the meaning signified in the color palette, mainly exclusiveness and passion, however is sufficiently versatile to carry out the mission of reaching all potential targets.
Since 2013 the client has been using these and other symbols to effectively communicate, create and nurture a community of like minded tango lovers to some degree of success, having expanded the community to impressive numbers and achieving recognition as an important player in the specialty event organizing space.
The original idea, to teach how to bond using tango music as a vehicle, and its values - tradition, diversity, respect and passion have a consolidated space in the portuguese tango community.