About the Design

The Ballets Russes's grand impresario, Sergei Diaghilev, was a perfect choice for this project because though he was world-famous and instrumental in the launching of innumerable artistic careers in Paris during the early twentieth century, he is obscure enough today that there weren't already hundreds of design identities for him. Having read Sjeng Scheijen's Diaghilev: A Life a couple years ago, I had a strong sense of the kind of person that Sergei Diaghilev was in life. He believed entirely in embracing a new aesthetic, in moving the arts forward to anticipate the movements to come, and financially supported many groundbreaking works in the fields of musical composition, set and costume design, dance choreography, and the theater, in general.

His life was glamorous, short, and full of love, heartbreak, and tragedy. Though his friends were from the highest ranks of Russian and Parisian society, he always felt like an outsider, was always barely keeping the Ballets Russes afloat, and always relied on those wealthy associates to make sure the show would go on. He staged the most notorious opening of a ballet in history, sparking tremendous controversy with The Rite of Spring. He had an eye and an ear for talent. If he noticed you, the whole world noticed you, too.

To update his persona and bring Diaghilev to a new world and a new audience, I imagined he would create a crowd-sourced artists collective that would pride itself on always keeping ahead of the pulse of the times. Artists of all media--musicians, sculptors, fashion designers, writers, painters, dancers, set designers--would submit video or digital portfolios to audition to join the collective, which would present both new and updated traditional performances. In creating the design for the SDAC, I began with Sergei's mark, which led me to experiment with angular shapes. In terms of color, Diaghilev's company is bold and bright, and its imagery is full of movement.