Athens State Orchestra

The Athens State Orchestra is the principal symphony orchestra in Greece, established more than 100 years ago. We were asked to redesign the previous logo, which was a vague representation of a fragment from an ancient Greek amphora. The brief was to update the look and feel with a more European perspective, but also to communicate the orchestra’s Greek origins. The solution was to create a symbol that depicts the three ‘families’ of a typical orchestra: the strings, brass and percussion instruments, illustrated in a way that communicates simplicity and harmony. The symbol’s three distinct elements outline a Cycladic idol, an ancient amphora, and an Ionic column. We used Fontsmith’s Albert font, a friendly sans serif font that is shapely, flexible and modern.