Aspen Music Festival and School: Brand Inspiration from Image and Legacy
• Qualitative & Quantitative Research • Brand Strategy • Position Statement • Position Pillars • Image Attributes • Visual Identity • Digital • Website • Print • Brand Guidelines • Launch and Governance Consultation • Season Identity, Digital & Print
AspenMusicFestival.com
Arts Branding had the pleasure of working with the Aspen Music Festival and School, which culminated in the launch of its first brand strategy and fully conceived visual identity. We engaged London-based international design director Jessica Philpott to direct and create the identity based on the brand strategy.
Opportunity
Change and New Needs
In anticipation of and alignment with the completion of its Bucksbaum School Campus, the administration for this nearly 70-year-old organization engaged Arts Branding and commissioned an organization-wide brand strategy and visual identity project to communicate the AMFS’s now world-class stature, resources, and programs.
Previous graphics no longer adequately represented the organization. To address this, the AMFS embarked on this effort to better capture its identity in visual design. The organization has changed dramatically in recent decades with the appointment of Music Director Robert Spano, the addition of partnerships and programs, and the full redevelopment of its school campus as a truly world-class facility.
Solution
Both the brand strategy and visual identity are inspired by the AMFS’s own legacy and image.
Brand Strategy from Research
Arts Branding began the intensive engagement with thorough national and international qualitative and quantitative research within Aspen, regionally, nationally, and in the field, with Pessen Strategic Research.
The resulting brand strategy that we developed, based on this research, articulates a mix of extraordinary performance, focused teaching, natural splendor, and Aspen’s small-town charm—a combination that all constituents find uniquely compelling about the AMFS experience.
Primary within that is a better expression of the world-class level to which the organization has risen. Equally important, the strategy also highlights the energizing effect of professionals and students playing side-by-side—a key aspect of the Festival that audiences, faculty, students, and guest artists love.
Visual Identity Inspiration
As bold and contemporary as its School architecture, the AMFS’s new visual identity—ultimately used across all digital and print communications—was inspired by AMFS’s own image and legacy: the clean, modernist aesthetic and graphic design of the influential Bauhaus legend, Herbert Bayer.
Bayer came to Aspen in the 1940s with Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke, creators of The Aspen Idea (integration of body|mind|spirit), and founders of the AMFS and the Aspen Institute. Bayer’s sensibility informed every aspect of Aspen’s transformation from a mining and ranching community to a world-class arts destination. He was responsible for much of the early graphic design for the AMFS and the Aspen Institute.
Strategy in Design
In viewing the new logotype, people see in its shapes an abstract “A” and/or “M,” musical notation, or simply Bauhaus-like shapes. Colors and supporting imagery are inspired by both Bayer’s aesthetics and the natural beauty and feeling of summer in Aspen.
Understanding that a logo can’t represent every aspect of an organization, we had the AMFS team consider dozens of design options and emphases that we created for them. Ultimately, the new visual identity will carry the world-class excellence, and boldness in the logo, and express the AMFS’s spectacular location, casual, welcoming atmosphere, and transcendent experiences in imagery.
Impact
For the first time in the AMFS’s history, all departments and communications communicated with one singular, unified brand strategy, a practical and focused positioning, and a set of clear research-driven messages.
For attendees, students, staff, and professionals, the new visual identity embodies the AMFS's world-class excellence and boldness and expresses the organization’s spectacular location, casual, welcoming atmosphere, and transcendent experiences with impactful and vibrant graphics and visuals.
Stephen Drimmer, Chairman of the Board of Trustees Marketing Committee; Alan Fletcher, President and CEO; and Laura E. Smith, Vice President for Marketing and Communications, spearheaded this momentous project for the AMFS.
