10 years ASO - A Decade Composed Together

We commemorate the 200 years since the Greek Revolution with a celebratory campaign which studies the past, celebrates today and looks towards tomorrow.

This year’s campaign is made up of two ingredients. Typography and illustration. We use the Bodoni font, due to its historic character and we turn it into “Bodoni Heroic” with the help of font designed Giorgos Triantafyllakos. The endings of the letters incorporate rhythm and music. The unification of classic with modern elements, as well as of the past with music, is perceived through the creation of unique glyphs which are used throughout this communication.

We illustrate values and ideals (Love, Passion, Knowledge) in an intense and gestural manner which, combined with the intensity of color, complements this year’s campaign for the Athens State Orchestra. Yesterday’s typography and today’s illustrations can coexist tomorrow. We remain historically courageous and innovative.

Awards
EBGE Awards 2021, Awards, Print
EBGE Awards 2021, Awards, Typeface Design
European Design Awards 2021, Bronze Award, Brochure

The pianos have been tuned, the violins have been set, the trumpets have been polished. The new season of the Athens National Orchestra “At Heroic Rhythms” has just begun. Still, strong, bold and magnificent, a series of ‘Heroes’ embody the excellence of the artistic programme of the orchestra. The hero illustrations work in synergy with a juxtaposition of serif and sansserif typefaces -Grand Gothik and Sauvage Antique – wanting to mirror the ability of music of bringing together and in harmony differences, cultures and generations.

The Athens State Orchestra is a beloved client and we have been working with them for the past 9 years, making it the longest collaboration of our practise. We feel very proud that our initial strategic design at the beginning of our collaboration set a solid and fertile ground that has led us to having complete freedom in our designs and allowed us to experiment throughout the years making each design process memorable.

Awards
EBGE Awards 2020, Merit, Poster
EBGE Awards 2020, Merit, Event Programme
EBGE Awards 2020, Merit, Illustration
European Design Awards 2020, Silver Award, Illustration

The 2018-2019 campaign moves along the lines of deconstructed naturalism. It is an artistic study on the nature of musicians and on the archetype of nature, which gives birth and feeds music through the compositions describing its grandeur.  The anatomy of the musician’s soul, where the instrument is the natural extension of his soul. It holds a single meaning, its art is timely, expressing in detail the slogan’s intention:

“It is in our nature“

The State Orchestra of Athens places at the forefront the convergence of History and Reinvention — an imaginative dialogue between the new and the old. Using the technique of collage through a revised lens, the K.O.A. highlights its 75-year journey from today’s perspective. Two levels of continuous interaction — a realistic portrait of the past and an archetypal symbol of music — capture its present state of existence. The dual nature of the collage reminds us that the archive is always alive, as long as the devoted continue to nourish it with new interpretations. The ongoing transformations of art are the way to publicly communicate your heritage, and heroic devotion to Music is the only path forward.

What would the world be without music?  What if notes and instruments lived on different planets, cut off from one another?

An orchestra conductor — the last one on his planet — decides to travel and reconcile instruments with notes, and bring music back to life. Many destinations, many pauses. An adventurous quest. Each pause is a visit to a different planet. Hostile violins, angry pianos, conservative notes, antisocial scores, silent oboes, disheveled harps: each planet presents its own difficulties. 

A story — a modern graphic novel — is unfolding throughout the annual program of the Athens State Orchestra. Each concert is part of this story. An adventurous quest, a sequence. A journey highlighting the necessity for courage and optimism, the role of creativity, the importance of cooperation and of the respect for dissimilarity.

A story of discord resulting in Musical Accord. 

Awards
EBGE Awards 2018, Gold Award, Campaign

Tough times call for creative solutions. Inspired by musical improvisation, and using the produce that is so bountiful in Greece, we created a ‘fresh’ collection of musical instruments for the Athens State Orchestra’s 2015-16 campaign. We hand-carved string, wind and percussion instruments from fruits and vegetables sourced from the local farmer’s market. We wanted to use something affordable and accessible to communicate the idea that creativity can be a positive catalyst for change, even in the worst-case scenario. The slogan reads: ‘We will find a way’

Awards
EBGE Awards 2017, Merit, Print
EBGE Awards 2017, Award, Print

How many people produce music every day without even realizing it? Through their repetitive moves and their rhythmic patterns? This relationship between people and music reveals the campaign of the Athens State Orchestra. The camera lense focuses on the hands of people working in their professional environments and captures movements that make them look like musicians playing to the music. So if our hands are batons and our moves are drums and stringed instruments lets enjoy the everyday instrumentation of our human music.

Awards
Ermis Awards 2016, Gold Award, TV Advertisement
European Design Awards 2016, Silver Award, Digital

“You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.” —John Coltrane

How many people produce music every day without even realizing it, through repetitive movements and rhythmic patterns? Our campaign for the Athens State Orchestra highlights this innate relationship between people and music. The camera focuses on the hands of people at work and captures movements that recall musicians playing instruments. An homage to the every day instrumentation of our human music.

Awards
EBGE Awards 2015, Merit, Print
European Design Awards 2015, Silver Award, Print

The Athens State Orchestra’s 2012 campaign was inspired by the man seen as a creator. It is developed in a series of illustrations that run throughout the year. Since the musicians are the Orchestra’s soul, we decided to bring them to the foreground and focus on their hands; the means by which they produce music. The inverted scale communicates optimism and encourages human aptitude.

Awards
EBGE Awards 2014, Gold Award, Illustration

In the orchestra, the whole is created by individual units. The instruments are also units. Wind, string, and percussion instruments. Music is produced by them. The proposal is visually inspired by the shape of the instruments. The instruments, joined together, create the whole. The line flows melodically and forms the symbol.

Awards
EBGE Awards 2013, Award, Print