MetaDesign and Lucerne Festival unite 20 years of symphony of brand and music

The Lucerne Festival Orchestra has played a special role in the success of this year's summer festival. The orchestra has played a major 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 aspects of brand management since 2001 - from renaming it the Lucerne Festival to rebranding it during the pandemic and creating ongoing communication measures.

Michael Haefliger, artistic director of the Lucerne Festival, and André Stauffer, creative director at MetaDesign, answered questions about the festival.

Michael Haefliger, what prompted the change of name from Lucerne International Music Festival to Lucerne Festival in 2001?

Michael Haefliger: With the opening of the KKL Luzern by architect Jean Nouvel in 1998, a cultural setting in a new dimension had become reality. In this we recognized the opportunity to rebrand the International Music Festival, to give it the resonance 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 it was the right step - and the prelude to something great.

What made you decide to focus so strongly on the brand for the Lucerne Festival cultural institution right from the start?

From the very 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 to intensify the communication of individual offerings, but that was not an option for us at the time. Today, we reach visitors and musicians from all over the world and can call ourselves one of the most renowned international classical music festivals without false arrogance.

From the very beginning, the Lucerne Festival brand has also set special visual accents. What is the claim? What role do key visuals, colorfulness, the play with contrasts play?

André Stauffer: A very large role. The most striking thing is the colorfulness of the brand. It reflects the liveliness and topicality of classical music. It conveys festival character, the joy of music, youthfulness and freshness. We deliberately let these colors, as well as subjects, clash with each other. In this way, we bring together opposites that are real at the Lucerne Festival: People from metropolises visiting Central Switzerland, orchestras from all over the world amidst the picturesque backdrop of mountains and Lake Lucerne. A visuality that stimulates, provokes and inspires.