Sign Projects - Empire Cinemas

One of the UK’s oldest cinema chains called on the special skills of Active Signs to re-brand 14 cinemas purchased from Cineworld and Odeon.

Empire Cinemas,with a history dating back to the original late 19th century building in London’s Leicester Square, wanted each of the newly acquired sites to have the same art deco appearance, characterised by precise and boldly delineated geometric shapes and strong colours consistent with the Empire Cinemas image.

The cinemas were situated in widely contrasting areas of the UK and included High Street buildings of the late Victorian period as well as more recent sites contained within shopping malls or located at out-of-town retail parks.

Active worked directly with Empire Cinemas to achieve the desired traditional format at each of the sites, utilising highly polished stainless steel and cerise-coloured acrylic throughout to complement the cinema chain’s brand identity. The use of LED lighting effects helped add a highly visible glitzy dimension withoutcompromising the distinctive art deco design concept.

Each of the Empire Cinemas’ sites incorporates individual lettering (some to a height of 1,500mm) constructed in highly polished mirror stainless steel, with translucent cerise-coloured acrylic faces and internal neon illumination with a white halo effect.

Subsidiary text was also constructed in polished stainless steel and featured recessed high-intensity LED units to simulate a ‘festive bulb’ lighting effect.

The project included the manufacture and installation of a host of internal signage elements, departmental headers, individual screen signs, poster box displays and special effect frosted graphics manifestations. Key sites featuring the new branding include those at Newcastle Upon Tyne, Poole, Ealing, Slough, Birmingham Great Park and the Clydebank shopping mall in Glasgow where Active had already carried out an extensive branding project.