MetaDesign begins a new era with Lucerne Festival

In 2001, MetaDesign assisted the then "International Music Festival" in its transformation into the "Lucerne Festival. Since then, the agency has supported the internationally renowned brand in a wide variety of communication-related issues.

Celebrating areas of tension

At Lucerne Festival, young talent meets established masters, tradition meets innovation, and Central Switzerland meets the wider world. This interplay of fields of tension is what makes Lucerne Festival special - and what drives it. This should now also manifest itself in the new brand.

Now the interplay of fields of tension can be rediscovered in a wide variety of brand elements. Basically, the new brand is intended to symbolize an inspiring clash of opposites that opens up new horizons and results in great things.

The result is an appearance that is intended to strengthen the Lucerne Festival's one-brand strategy. It supports the festival's great diversity - the fields of tension, the different offers, target groups and events - in a distinctive brand, to carry it to the outside world and at the same time to take a big step into the future.

"We don't want to passively wait and see, but actively shape"

Three questions for Michael Haefliger, artistic director of the Lucerne Festival.

Michael Haefliger, what motivated you to change the brand?

Michael Haefliger: We want to make the Lucerne Festival brand fit for the future. A "just keep it up" brand identity no longer reflects our vision. The market and needs are changing: if you want to continue to focus on entrepreneurial and cultural excellence, you have to recognize the signs early on and take action. We are doing this with our new one-brand strategy, with a new focus on three divisions: "Symphony," "Contemporary" and "Music For Future," and with new projects. The brand is a powerful instrument for making this strategy tangible. In this way, we are emphasizing that we want to continue to develop decisively as one of the leading international classical music festivals - and this requires a correspondingly bold step.

And why right now - in the middle of a pandemic?

Because we don't want to wait passively, but actively shape things. Today for tomorrow. We have been engaged in the discourse of change for some time now. And constantly thinking, developing and moving forward is part of our DNA. So this transformation was already on our minds before the pandemic - and will continue to be so afterwards. We saw the Corona crisis as an opportunity to drive the process forward. We used the time to sharpen our strategic profile for the future, to position ourselves optimally with new concepts and to show our colors with a new image.

What do you expect from this step?

We always have the future of music in mind and look forward to what is to come. We love and live classical music - and just as much the many possibilities to reinterpret it. We want to surprise, inspire and move. And that should reach "out there". We want it to be experienced and to move people. Of course, I hope that our charisma will continue to grow. Internationally as well as nationwide. We want to continue to convince our audience and at the same time give young people access to traditional classical as well as contemporary music - to reach them and inspire them. And I am convinced that with our new strategy and our new brand identity, we will achieve precisely these goals.