As a winner of Communication Arts magazine’s sixth annual typography competition, American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.)’s The Strand is featured in the publication’s Typography Annual 6 issue this month. The project won the Award for Excellence in the Environmental Graphics category. As part of the theater’s renovation, SOM developed a graphic identity for The Strand that clearly reflected the identity of A.C.T., a 50-year-old institution, as well as the organization’s mission and its new space. Focused on new work, emerging artists, arts education, and community outreach, The Strand’s identity had to convey the unadorned immediacy of experimental theater and reflect the gritty, transitional aspects of its surrounding neighborhood. The stencil, a staple of backstage labeling, was used to express the direct, stripped-down simplicity of the Strand’s space and program.