Milwaukee Film, the ever-busy nonprofit organization that stages the annual Milwaukee Film Festival and operates the historic Oriental and Downer theaters all year long, has a snazzy new look for 2026. Out with the old (that all-seeing “eye”), and in with the new (see below).
On Friday, Milwaukee Film Executive Director Susan Kerns unveiled both a new Milwaukee Film logo and a similarly redesigned Milwaukee Film website. The name and theme of the logo? “Big Screen,” of course. Fans of retro colors and aspect ratios rejoice!
“This logo, with its colors reminiscent of the Oriental Theatre, the Downer Theatre, and celluloid film stock itself, feels like a part of the theaters and calls one inside,” Kerns says in an open letter. “It’s a logo with movement, with pull, that also lets the film images shine. It’s a logo befitting not just of a film festival but of year-round community. It frames the movies while drawing us together to experience them.”
The logo and website were designed by Milwaukee studio Northern Ground.
As for the website, Kerns says functionality and accessibility were key, but that “we wanted the site to be more than just transactional, and Northern Ground’s deep research again came into play.”
Looking at photos of movie theaters from the 1910s and 1920s, when the Downer and the Oriental Theatres were built, they found cinema facades absolutely covered in movie advertising. The theaters, the marquees, and the additional signs all kind of yelled at passersby, in the same way a carnival talker might cajole you into their show.
During their discovery process, Northern Ground also mentioned their surprise at how many people still learn about films from our physical marquees. They wanted to bring this element to the website, to use the website as a digital marquee of sorts. The homepage is big, bold, and yells at you a little bit! We see it as part of our theaters’ exteriors, the outside talker encouraging folks to enter the funhouse.
Congrats on the new look, Milwaukee Film! It’s super slick! We love it! Here’s Kerns’ full open letter!
Dear Milwaukee,
Susan Kerns here, Executive Director of Milwaukee Film, writing to say a few words about our new branding and website, which launches this Friday, January 9th. Instead of a “normal” press release, we thought an open letter about vision and creative process might be more interesting! Here goes.
As a life-long film kid, it’s no surprise I love seeing movies on the big screen. The big screen is how filmmakers want you to see their films, and it’s the lure that pulled me into all kinds of worlds from the first moment I set foot in a movie theater. The best filmmakers craft every frame for audiences to notice both the grand scale of the world and its tiny details—the characters and their environments. It’s in the London grime of David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, the Italian milieus of Fellini’s 8 1/2, the detailed artifice of Norma Desmond’s mansion, wardrobe, and facial expressions in Sunset Boulevard.
What I learned teaching film classes, though, is how crucial the big screen is to community and belonging. At Columbia College Chicago, where I was a tenured professor before returning to Milwaukee Film, I prioritized class time with students to watch films together, because I saw firsthand its transformative potential. They laughed together, collectively cheered, and occasionally hid their tears from one another. They had favorite places to sit in the theater, and favorite people to sit with. We were studying film while fostering friendships.
The big screen became the hill I said I would die on in academe, and it is what led me back to Milwaukee Film. I am here today because cinemas, as storytelling portals that beckon the curious, are more crucial than ever. Within them, a singular viewing community forms, creating energy only that one audience will experience, and it can be a lark, or life changing.
This impulse is what our new branding—our new “Big Screen” logo—foregrounds. We wanted a logo that invites everyone in while showcasing the films themselves. This logo, with its colors reminiscent of the Oriental Theatre, the Downer Theatre, and celluloid film stock itself, feels like a part of the theaters and calls one inside. It’s a logo with movement, with pull, that also lets the film images shine. It’s a logo befitting not just of a film festival but of year-round community. It frames the movies while drawing us together to experience them.
It was a joy working with Northern Ground on this journey (And I feel compelled to note they were hired for this project before I was!). Grace Bernier’s extensive historical research guided the project while offering Milwaukee Film new ways to talk about the iconography embedded in our theater spaces, and Jay Beckman’s cinephilia turned the logo attention away from apparatus and toward experience, while still incorporating the aspect ratios of historical cinematic presentation.
The website, then, became its own challenge. Obviously, priority number one is usability, which is why each day’s screenings appear on the right side of every page. Accessibility also guided the design. From the colors to the fonts, all elements have been chosen with best practices in accessibility front of mind so the site is more usable with screen readers and for all audiences.
But we wanted the site to be more than just transactional, and Northern Ground’s deep research again came into play. Looking at photos of movie theaters from the 1910s and 1920s, when the Downer and the Oriental Theatres were built, they found cinema facades absolutely covered in movie advertising. The theaters, the marquees, and the additional signs all kind of yelled at passersby, in the same way a carnival talker might cajole you into their show.
During their discovery process, Northern Ground also mentioned their surprise at how many people still learn about films from our physical marquees. They wanted to bring this element to the website, to use the website as a digital marquee of sorts. The homepage is big, bold, and yells at you a little bit! We see it as part of our theaters’ exteriors, the outside talker encouraging folks to enter the funhouse.
As Milwaukee Film approaches our 18th annual Milwaukee Film Festival in April, and begins our ninth year operating historic movie theaters year-round, we are excited to debut this new branding with community building in mind! We hope you join us to experience films together, under the boundless screen.
Thanks for reading!
Susan Kerns
Executive Director
Milwaukee Film
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