Inspired by the main aspects that make the Elbphilharmonie so outstanding, we created a logo that could promote the house internationally and was capable of evolving into a visually strong and unique brand. These main aspects are:

a) Iconicity. The iconic building is the core of the brand, guaranteeing recognisability and uniqueness.

b) Reflections. The ever-changing reflections on the glass façade turn the logo into a living canvas, and the inverted reflection on the water of the River Elbe highlights its premium location.

c) Music. The reflection on the water adopts a rhythmical and musical shape, which clearly visualises a house of music.

These three factors ensure a visually strong and consistent identity, creating an indistinguishable and unique brand.

After years of seeing an almost completed building, we needed more than pictures to attract people’s attention again. It was necessary to create an eye-catching layout, in combination with bold messages, in order to give the subject a new twist and interest.

In order to achieve informative as well as persuasive communication, the brand was based on two visual approaches: a regular communication style and a campaign style. They are somewhat different but both grow out of the essence of the logo and have common attributes that ensure recognisability. All layouts use the same typeface, include the simplified icon of the building (whether it be within the logo or within the campaign’s headline) and they all reflect images, like the Elbphilharmonie is reflected on the water. The result is a wide range of possibilities, following two visual styles but as a whole creating an outstanding and clearly unified brand identity.

The iconicity and uniqueness of the new Elbphilharmonie brand has clearly contributed to the success of the international launch campaign. Its variability and eye-catching appearance enabled a very effective and entertaining social media presence, leading to a 900% increase in fans, attracting 205,000 individuals since the start of the campaign and achieving an overall social media reach of 280 million. Its unique and experiential website had visits from over 70 countries. Out of home reached more than 300 million media contacts and the whole launch campaign created 50,000 media reports and had a global reach of 22 billion prior to and after the Elbphilharmonie’s opening in January 2017.

The unique brand and launch campaign led to a complete image turnaround, a fully sold-out opening season, and a total of one and a half million visitors in less than six months. It clearly made everybody enthusiastic about the Elbphilharmonie again.