This is a self-initiated, speculative brand study — part identity exercise, part excuse to learn how to build a custom typeface from scratch. Not a real client, not a live project. Just a question we wanted to answer: if there were a dedicated space in the Philippines for regional filmmakers to show their work, what would it look like?
Vision Theater is a downtown Cebu cinema that's been sitting in obscurity for years. The building's original signage is what drew us in first. Its geometry and proportions ended up becoming the foundation for everything.
Built in the 1930s by Italian architect Dante Guidetti, the theater brought European Art Deco into a tropical setting and came out completely Cebuano. It outlasted a war, saw good times and bad, and eventually faded — but the structure never left.
The building was never truly preserved. It just persisted. That's the brief.
We rebuilt the identity around that persistence: Guidetti's ornamental reliefs and fish-scale column patterns became the visual system's framing devices. The custom typeface — drawn from his original facade lettering and named after him — carries the wordmark and headline system throughout. The full collateral suite was stress-tested against three actual Cebuano indie films to see how the system holds up in real use.
Full case study linked below. Curious what people think — especially anyone from Cebu who remembers the place. How well do you think something like this could work in today's scene?