The Making Of… ECHOLOT Share: OVERW8 Score Awaiting client review n/a Date Published 1 March 2021 Reading Time 3-Minute Read Where we started ECHOLOT is an ambitious project for ‘new music’ that will take place for the 4th time this year. It is organized by Kunsträume am See, the renowned gallery at the Starnberg Lake as well as the Kaske Foundation. Contentwise, the festival has always been a great success according to both the press and visitors. Unfortunately the well-deserved pride and cultural worth didn’t reflect in the existing communication (especially website, leaflets). Our team made it their task to close that gap. The objective As so often, the first step was to sit down with the decision-makers Elisabeth Carr and Manuela Hartel and understand their vision and expectations. On this basis, we worked out a detailed briefing, which was finalized together and approved. Since there were several important decision-makers (in the background there was also Artistic Director Gunter Pretzel), the conceptional consensus was especially important here. Polishing the brand In a case like this, several options will first be created to play around and discuss with the customer and finally polish. Logo Makeover and Brand Elements The festival’s unique atmosphere needs to become more experienceable beforehand. The ‘New Music’ is a highly innovative kind of classical music, disruptive und unusual. From the very beginning, the digital video art by Manuela Hartel played a huge role in visually translating the acoustic impressions. Both were supposed to be clearly recognizable in the logo, fonts and colors. Special Branding Elements Yes, of course, we wanted to keep it clean. But such an avant-garde topic is basically asking for a more unusual style. So we treated ourselves to a few ‘specials’. The Digital – The New Music – The Masks The Digital We chose ‘Anaglyph’ as the main filter. This filter visually expresses the movement of the sounds and makes the sometimes outdated-looking images of musical instruments more lively. At the same time, it works great for all three elements, that are so essential to the festival (people, music, surroundings). The New Music New Music is in many ways different, a new approach and way of realizing it. This also translates to the way music is written down. Instead of ‘normal’ notes, visual elements are used. A very characteristic element in the world of New Music – and a MUST for the overall look. The Masks The festival is closely connected to its location, Schloss Kempfenhausen. Creative Director Kristin Reinbach immediately noticed the characteristic masks on the walls of the great hall. Based on photos she took, these elements were developed further to become statement elements. While the festival has a different motto every year (in 2019 “BeyderZeit”), these masks will ensure visual recognition throughout the years. Makeover for the Website The website was previously created on WordPress. It was noticeable that time and budget for this had been scarce so far. Technically it needed to be cleaned up and made more secure (lack of security measures had lead to a lot of spam and other deficits). Afterward, it was basically completely refurbished. Posters and Leaflets The so-called “collaterals”. After setting a solid base with the stylesheet and cleaned up content, these were created and discussed in no time.