The journey of free spirits

On the brink of its 50th anniversary, we helped Sibiu Jazz reinvent itself to better connect with the new generation of music lovers, while staying true to its heritage. We defined the brand as a cultural manifestation of the free spirit of jazz and how it can touch people. The festival is here to boldly inspire a free spirit by opening up the infinitely surprising and diverse world of jazz for people to feel and experience in their own personal way.

To reveal this brand idea, we immersed ourselves in the world of Sibiu Jazz. We talked to various people — festival director, volunteers, jazz musicians, jazz collector, music professor, cultural manager, journalist, photographer. We gathered over a thousand minutes of charming stories. We looked at jazz posters, album covers, books, movies, music festivals, the future of jazz. And of course, we listened to jazz on repeat.

A glimpse of history

Founded in the 70s by a group of bold thinkers, the long-standing festival has become a proud ambassador of Sibiu worldwide, being part of the city’s identity. Much of its rich history remains unwritten. We spoke with people who have experienced Sibiu Jazz before the 90s and they describe it as madness, a phenomenon, freedom, resistance through culture. Some continue to attend the festival today, referring to it as ‘a living legend’.

We also researched the visual history to find that each edition was different, with no intention to express an identity. Some looked funky, others reflected the times. One recurring element was the trumpet with towers, first drawn by Stefan Orth for the poster of 1979. Later on, it was periodically used as a symbol. In 2007, it was vectorized and combined with a colorful wordmark, which resulted in a logo with too many ideas.

Looking towards the future, we questioned the trumpet — How does it relate to contemporary music lovers? What does it say about Sibiu Jazz or modern Sibiu? What about the diversity of jazz styles or instruments? Would it be worth creating a simpler trumpet? Wouldn’t we get bored if we made it the star of the identity? Isn’t it the old way of representing jazz? Aren’t there enough trumpets in the world?

Rhythm and color

We designed the new identity to stand out, feel jazzy and free, evoke something about the city and leave room for imagination. There are two elements that keep it together, type and color. It will be colorful and it will give the impression of rhythm, with the right use of type.

When deciding on the color palette, we first picked red and yellow, the colors of Sibiu’s coat of arms. Pink works a treat with red, green brings the freshness of a summer festival and violet is a personal crush of the festival director. We tried to do more with less and obtain a very colorful look with as few colors as possible; we’ve got five, yet there's the impression of more when combining and repeating them.

Our type choice is one that looks as quirky as jazz feels, while evoking the spirit of the festival and the craft of the city. Designed by German studio René Bieder, the type is called Freigeist, which means ‘free spirit’. Perfect match. We love the uninhibited expressiveness of the characters and how they work together, the neat set of numbers —dates are key to a festival— and particularly letter J, which resembles a saxophone.

2021

Every year, the 3-day festival brings together a fusion of colourful styles to show the wide range of sounds in jazz today, from comforting classics to latin jazz, jazz rock and various other lively rhythms. For the 2021 edition, we created a poster that introduces the vibrant dancing experience and celebrates the new identity. Summerlike and fluid, the SJ seems to be moving without any animation. It’s a punchy visual that’s impossible to ignore.

We joined the concerts for the weekend and we couldn’t be happier to see the poster and flags on display in the city center. The high moment for us was the concert of Guillaume Perret, who played the electric saxophone of his own creation, accompanied by drums, in a duo that was first on show here on this stage. Glad to have photographer and friend Adi Tudose by our side to capture the emotions of Sibiu Jazz. Lovely.