The Lucerne Festival, which brings the world stars of classical music to Lucerne every year, came to an end at the weekend. With “Paradise”, the Lucerne Festival has once again consciously set a thematic counterpoint in a time of climate change and war, and MetaDesign, in turn, has implemented the theme visually.
Editorial – September 12, 2023
The Lucerne Festival Orchestra played a special role in the success of this year’s summer festival, having played a key role in shaping the festival with symphony and chamber music concerts – and is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The long-term success of the Lucerne Festival is an expression of excellent and innovative artistic direction as well as carefully selected international artists and musicians of the highest quality. At the same time, it is an example of consistent brand management – with the right, even courageous, decisions at the right moment.
MetaDesign has been supporting the festival in all brand management issues since 2001 – from the renaming to Lucerne Festival to the rebranding during the pandemic to the creation of ongoing communication measures.
Michael Haefliger, director of the Lucerne Festival, and André Stauffer, creative director at MetaDesign, answered questions about the festival.
Michael Haefliger, what was the deciding factor in renaming the Lucerne International Music Festival Weeks to the Lucerne Festival in 2001?
Michael Haefliger: With the opening of the KKL Lucerne by architect Jean Nouvel in 1998, a cultural framework in a new dimension became reality. We recognized this as an opportunity to re-profile the International Music Festival, to give it the response it deserved and to build a global brand in the long term. The renaming to Lucerne Festival was the starting point. This step required a lot of courage from everyone involved – as so often in the last 20 years. Today we know without a doubt that this was the right step – and the start of something big.
What motivated you to focus so heavily on the brand for the Lucerne Festival cultural institution right from the start?
From the beginning, we had the ambition to become one of the leading classical music festivals internationally. That’s why we decided to invest all our communicative power in the brand and establish it internationally – a long-term strategy. The alternative would have been increased communication of individual offers, but that was not an option for us at the time. Today we reach visitors and musicians from all over the world and can, without false arrogance, call ourselves one of the most renowned international classical music festivals.
The Lucerne Festival brand also sets special visual accents right from the start. What is the claim? What role do key visuals, color and playing with opposites play?
André Stauffer: A very big role. The most striking thing is the color of the brand. It reflects the liveliness and topicality of classical music. It conveys festival character, joy in music, youthfulness and freshness. We consciously let these colors, but also subjects, collide. In this way, we bring together opposites that actually take place at the Lucerne Festival: people from metropolises visiting central Switzerland, orchestras from all over the world amidst the picturesque backdrop of the mountains and Lake Lucerne. A visual that stimulates, provokes and inspires.
2023-09-12 21:58:22
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