On Stage Skåne is an English-language theatre company based in Malmö, Sweden. For their 2023 production of Swedish Pizza With a Side of Crime — a darkly comic play written and directed by PJ Andersson . I was commissioned to design the full print identity. The brief covered everything the audience would see before and during the show: the poster, the folded programme, cast pages, and the intermission slide.
Project overview
My role: Graphic Designer
Client: On Stage Skåne, Malmö, Sweden
Scope: Poster, folded programme, cast pages, intermission slide
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Figma
The challenge
A title that is absurd.
An identity that cannot be.
Theatre productions arrive with nothing, just a title, a director, a cast list, and an opening night date. My job was to build a visual identity from scratch that worked across a printed A4 poster, a folded A5 programme, and a projected intermission slide.
The added difficulty: the title is funny and surreal. The visual identity had to match that tone without becoming a joke. Warm enough to invite people in. Strange enough to make them curious.
The cast lives inside the pizza.
Each actor's face is placed inside a slice of pizza directly connecting the title to the cast in a single image. A person seeing this poster understands the show's tone, meets the cast, and gets the joke all in one glance.
The script typography reinforces the handmade warmth of live theatre. The dark textured background keeps the mood from tipping into pure comedy and there is crime in this pizza, after all.
The pizza metaphor extends into the programme itself. Cast members are listed not by character name but by their pizza role, keeping the production's darkly comic tone consistent across every touchpoint the audience encounters.
The concept
The system
One visual language applied across three formats. The same dark texture, script typeface, and pizza motif appear on the street, in your hands, and on stage.
Folded A5 brochure
Given to every audience member on entry. Cover extends the poster aesthetic into a tactile print object. Actor portraits with pizza roles. The concept runs through every page — no character names, only pizza titles.
IN USE — ONSTAGESKANE · MALMÖ, SWEDEN
From world premiere to final curtain.
Six weeks of real use.
Poster displayed outside the venue
World premiere announcement
Typography system across 8 cast posts
Final performance
The identity ran across the full production campaign — from world premiere announcement on 25 August 2023 to the final performance on 4 October 2023
CAMPAIGN DURATION 6 weeks INSTAGRAM POSTS 10+ posts VENUE MAF Scen 3
"A place where everyone knows your order, but nobody knows your secrets."
About the play — Swedish Pizza With a Side of Crime
Printed.
Performed.
Delivered.
The full identity was printed and used across the live production run — poster distributed digitally and in print, folded programmes handed to audiences at every performance, and the intermission slide projected during the show.
On Stage SkåneSpångatan 20, Scen 3
Malmö, Sweden
20 September — 5 performances
Written & directed by PJ Andersson