René Barbera

Tenor René Barbera has quickly established himself as one of today’s most exciting vocal artists. The first-ever sole recipient of all three top awards of the Operalia Competition in 2011 and winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2008, René has earned critical praise and audience acclaim for his effortless singing, his “old-fashioned warmth” (Opera News), and his expressive musicality. In the 2019/20 season, René returned to the historic Teatro alla Scala for two of his signature roles: Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) and Alfredo (La Traviata).

René Barbera wanted a striking website design to showcase his musical prowess and celebrate his cultural influences. This manifests itself by way of a gradient and smokey skull inspired by traditional calavera ( a sugar skull used in the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead). This speaks not only of the origins of René but of gentle transitions, the movement from light to dark and the nature of life and death that weaves it’s way into Mexican cultural traditions as well as his dramatic operatic roles.

The design embraces a distinctive blue, purple and pink gradient, simple typefaces, and bold colour blocking aimed at finding a comfortable intersection between René’s individual creative expression, career growth and heritage.

These design elements are vibrant and well-composed with a balance of solid colour and texture. Through consistent site wide repetition, this form of graphic identity delivers impact, energy and a visual flavour of who René Barbera is as a virtuoso vocalist. 

Headers confidently use Bebas Neue, a sans-serif font with familiar clean lines, elegant shapes and a blend of technical straightforwardness. It’s simple warmth make it uniformly proper for web, print, commerce, and art, making it a perfect choice for René. 

Complimenting the boldness of Bebas Neue is Proxima Nova, a strong, versatile geometric sans that combines modern proportions with a geometric appearance.

The approach and use of these typefaces wouldn’t necessarily work for other artists, but for René Barbera is works perfectly. Through stylistically contrasting the font pairings, this selectively and provocatively provides crisp content hierarchy, a sharp focus onto specific sections of content, and a juxtaposition of classical elegance with playful eclecticism.