Since 1993, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano has immediately become an essential reference for the great Milanese symphonic repertoire, including exceptional events and prestigious halls. The Client decided to abandon the former name "La Verdi", a heritage of the repertoire of Giuseppe Verdi, which no longer indicated who they are, a great orchestra, what they do, symphonic music, and where they came from, Milan. "La Verdi" did not respond anymore to the need to be inclusive and accessible to everyone, from insiders to beginners, from individuals to families.

The task was to create a universal identity that was strongly inclusive and contaminated by different audiences. An identity that conveys an emotional but contemporary look and feel, a key to communication that opens to an international environment and welcomes the audience of young people and families. An effective design system yet easy to apply in all communications.

Budget: 10K

The Orchestra Sinfonica Foundation is one of Milan and Italy's most important symphonic realities. Its "home" is the Auditorium of Milan. Opened in October 1999, it has a capacity of 1253 seats. In a few years, it has established itself as one of the main cultural centres of the territory. The hall is designed as a multifunctional space for concerts of symphonic, choral and chamber music, jazz and light music, recordings with digital audio techniques, and broadcasting of television shows. The Orchestra Sinfonica Foundation promotes and spreads expressions of culture and art, focusing on music, symphonic, concert, lyric or otherwise musical performance in Milan and the Lombardy Region. Within this peculiar context of educating the public about music and its wide cultural profiles, it has gradually assumed the function of Ambassador in Italy and abroad, of the cultural values expressed: dynamism, openness to borders and internationalization. This process is supported by a strategy of evolution and growth, which allows to accelerate the path of the Foundation towards its role as a reference for the great Italian symphonic repertoire. A dynamic, flexible, and innovative approach to an increasingly wide and transversal repertoire is well suited to Milan's economic and social-cultural role in Italy and abroad.

"We want to be open to the international public, being a point of reference with an ownable identity." (Ambra Redaelli, President of Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano)

Here's where La Verdi's transformation into Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano begins.

Not just a simple rebranding: we had to build a "bridge" capable of transcending boundaries and captivating all generations. We started from the Orchestra's home town, Milan. A city that gave birth to Futurism — one of the most avant-garde movements celebrating dynamism as a way of life. But how to break down the barriers and make the Orchestra fully accessible?

By creating a language as universal as music: that's where we took inspiration to create a visual system understandable by everyone. Studying the Futurist manifesto "Words in Freedom", which used the onomatopoeias to express sounds with words, we translated the music into "sounding visuals" that anyone can feel before understanding.

With the client team, we created a strategy and a visual system to represent the values of the Orchestra and its affiliation with the territory. The design is inspired by avant-garde cultural movements and synesthesia, with the potential for reactive interaction with music. We designed the brand logo that represents a sound wave generated from the “M” glyph designed in the style of Futurism that synthesises the shapes of Milan’s Cathedral, the iconic symbol in the heart of Milanese people. In addition, a coordinated image and custom typography capable of playing music just like an Orchestra does - TUMB TUMB - was developed in-house to add an unexpected contemporary demeanour that creates a pairing between the Orchestra and its host city, two evolving entities in step with the times.

Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano has fulfilled the aim of enlarging the audience and has achieved the goal of including and disclosing cultural multidisciplinary competencies.

After the launch of the new Identity in May 2022, the Client registered an increase in Subscription sales, and tickets reached 1,309,882 euros, an increase of 56.9%. During December 2022, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano recorded a revenue of 338,903 euros. This is the best revenue result ever reached by the sales in one month of activity, with an increase of 20.5% compared to December 2019 and 41.3% in December 2018.

The global reach has also been successfully achieved through the invitations received to participate in international events and the best and most widespread dissemination of the activities’ communication, carried out by the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Foundation towards a wider audience, inclusive, multi-disciplined.