Toi Whakaari is New Zealand’s national drama school — a Crown-funded institution whose alumni include Sam Neill, Cliff Curtis, Anna Paquin, Taika Waititi, and a long roster of Aotearoa’s most recognisable performers, directors and storytellers.
Obvious worked with Toi Whakaari to tighten its visual identity, rebuild the school’s website, and support digital marketing and course promotion across a defined period of engagement. The work helped a treasured cultural institution communicate more clearly to prospective students, industry, funders and the wider arts community.
The brief
A national drama school carrying decades of cultural weight needed its visual identity, website and recruitment communications to feel as considered as the work coming out of the school itself. The previous brand presence didn’t fully reflect the calibre of the teaching, the alumni or the institution’s standing in the New Zealand arts sector.
What we did
Visual identity refinement
Tightened the existing visual identity system — bringing more discipline, consistency and considered application across digital and print touchpoints, without throwing out the equity Toi Whakaari had already built.
Website rebuild
Designed and rebuilt the school’s website end-to-end, structured around the audiences that mattered most: prospective students researching training pathways, industry collaborators, alumni, and funders.
Digital marketing & course promotion
Supported the school with digital marketing campaigns and course promotion, helping convert interest into applications across short courses and the full degree programmes.
Why this engagement matters
Cultural and arts organisations in Aotearoa carry a particular kind of responsibility — they hold creative practice for the country, often on tight public funding, and the way they communicate has to honour that. Tightening Toi Whakaari’s identity, rebuilding their website and supporting recruitment was about giving a national institution communications infrastructure that matches the quality of the people, work and stories inside the building.
Obvious is no longer formally engaged with Toi Whakaari, but the work remains a meaningful chapter in our portfolio of cultural and creative-sector engagements.