Computer Arts

proJect FActFiLe

BrieF: London Symphony Orchestra tasked The Partners

with creating an identity to celebrate the first season of

new musical director Sir Simon Rattle that would be music

to the ears of all concert-goers not just classical aficionados.

cLient: London Symphony Orchestra

AGency: The Partners http://www.the-partners.com

coLLABorAtor: Tobias Gremmler http://www.syncon-d.com

proJect durAtion: 18 months

Live dAte: Januar y 2017

spring 2017 the partners for lso

computerarts.creativebloq.com

StuArt rAdFord

uK creative director The partners

Stuart started his career at Fitch before

co-founding Radford Wallis in 1999 and then

joining The Partners in 2011. He now heads the

agency’s London teams where he’s currently

leading a project for European channel Arte.

StriKinG the riGht chord

Stuart Radford

When london symphony orchestra (lso) first

approached us in 2015 the team wanted to

evolve the brand to coincide with sir simon

rattle’s first season as musical director. the

orchestra itself has always been progressive

so we felt there was permission to be a bit more

innovative. lso’s performances are renowned

for being visceral powerful and emotional so

there was something interesting in the idea of

it being an orchestra that was always moving –

in both senses of the expression.

We did a comprehensive audit that looked

at how lso was communicating alongside the

rest of the sector. the london orchestras all

talked about themselves in relatively the same

way – imagery was very static and traditional.

if you know classical music you’ll see a picture

of a conductor and you’ll have an understanding

of what they’re like and therefore the type of

experience you’re going to have. but traditional

representations of classical music can be a

barrier for those without that prior knowledge.

the lso is keen to get people to experience

classical music that wouldn’t normally and

so there was a real opportunity with the

appointment of sir simon rattle.

StudyinG S ound

the starting point was the lso marque; it

was the only thing they were adamant they

wanted to keep. senior designer marc spicer

and i felt like we could unpack it and bring

sir simon rattle into the crux of the identity.

When you see him conduct it’s very powerful.

We wanted to create a way to capture the

movement that is intrinsic in the creation

of the music. the answer came from using

motion capture. last June during rehearsals

at the barbican centre sir simon put on

a motion capture suit and had a specially

adapted baton that recorded his movements

when he conducted various different excerpts

from elgar’s enigma variations.

When we discovered digital artist tobias

Gremmler’s studies of the movement of Kung

Fu artists we knew he was right for the job.

He treated the data with respect but built

01 capturing the energy
of the lso was vital to
the project including
in this new musician
photography shoot by
ranald mackechnie.

02 artist tobias

Gremmler morphed

an elgar variation

into a heady plume

of coloured smoke

keeping the colour

palette warm to

match the timbre.

03 lso was keen

to retain its iconic

logo which features

a conductor in action.

the partners’ identity

also put the conductor

at its heart.

04 the university

of portsmouth and

vicon motion systems

captured the movement

of sir simon rattle’s

conduction giving

Gremmler the data

to visualise.

04

03

01 02