Part of strategy to reach and attract more listeners
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra announced a rebranding of its visual identity, a project brought to fruition in January 2024. The rebranding was driven by the orchestra’s growing ambition to reach people of all ages and backgrounds. Developed by design agency MOTIF, the rebranding introduces a more emotional quality and is better suited to digital media. Striking work by the leading Dutch photographer Carli Hermès also plays a key role. The orchestra’s aim is thus to appeal to a wider audience both in public spaces and via online media.
After more than twenty years, the orchestra is bidding farewell to the monumental typography designed by Atelier René Knip. However, the distinctive crown will remain as the orchestra’s brand logo.
Pushing boundaries
This new visual identity is part of a strategy to strengthen the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s brand, vital to ensuring it remains future-proof. For 135 years, the Concertgebouw Orchestra has played a flagship role both in and outside the Netherlands. In this rapidly changing world, the orchestra intends to remain an active part of society not only for those already familiar with it, but also for all those who are curious to experience all that classical music has to offer. That’s why it’s pushing the boundaries: the orchestra is increasingly making its presence felt outside the concert hall, seeking out unusual performance venues, forging unexpected collaborations, encouraging the youngest generations to discover classical music and inviting new listeners to experience its power and vitality. Accordingly, the orchestra wants to ensure that its visual branding better reflects this policy course.
Managing Director Dominik Winterling says: “We as an orchestra aim to play an active part in the twenty-first century, and we’ve been committed to that goal for some time. There’s our Essentials series, the free open-air Opening Night concerts and our Bijlmer Klassiek crossover concerts – these weren’t on the programme ten years ago. The objective now is to adapt our communication to new audiences. We want to touch people, win them over. We’re already doing that in the concert hall, but now we’re doing it visually, too. The main element we felt needed to be reintroduced was “pushing the boundaries”. And Carli Hermès’s photographs reflect that perfectly! We will be working with him up to and including the 2024–25 season and with other photographers after that.”
Head of Marketing, Communications and Sales Wietske Kuiper highlights: “We decided to keep the crown and give it a leading role as a logo in our visual branding, in combination with the diamond shape. We’re also reincorporating the word “Royal” into the logo because it resonates with those who are already familiar with us and with the new audiences we’re looking to reach. And since it’s mainly online that we’re reaching new listeners, it was crucial that our new visual branding be well suited to digital media. Animations of the logo and striking visuals reinforce the boundary-pushing content we’re leveraging to attract new listeners.”
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