Beginning officially in January 2015, Door County's award-winning American Folklore Theatre (AFT) will debut a new name: "Northern Sky Theater." As a fan of AFT, we are unveiling our new logo to you - FIRST!

The new name was announced in May just prior to our 24th Summer Season.

A task force of senior company members, writers, performers, board members, and volunteers has been working on the transition since late last year. We sent out several requests for conceptual logo designs in April to graphic designers based in Northeast Wisconsin.

"Our guidelines to the designers were fairly specific but gave them a lot of room for imagination," stated Marketing Director, Ann Birnschein. "We provided them with a broad range of general themes to work with including the 'night sky' and 'music', but also wanted the logo to communicate our quality theater experience."

The task force reviewed dozens of concepts before fine-tuning a rendition submitted by independent designer Bill Vandermause to meet our unique needs.

"We love how this logo is at the same time evocative of the night sky and yet offers the subtle suggestion of 'music' with the shape of the guitar on its side," stated Artistic Director, Jeffrey Herbst. "The typeface really stands on its own with 'Northern Sky' as the strongest element and the word 'Theater' offering a bit of whimsy."

We plan to use simply, 'Northern Sky', as the shortened version of our name.

"As we'll reveal throughout next year, this concept will offer a lot of room for playfulness," suggested Managing Director, Dave Maier. "We'll be able to tweak it slightly for different applications including seasonal events."

"We think this logo celebrates the company's past while looking

strongly to the future," added Board Chairperson, Mary Seeberg. "It evokes that magical feeling we all experience during our summer show under the stars and that delightful feeling after a show as we head home in the autumnal Door County night."

Download the Northern Sky Design Drafts HERE

Ticket Mock-Up

Poster Design Draft