When we began working on the Royal Academy of Music’s brand, we were determined to prepare them for their bicentenary in a manner that looked ahead, not backwards. We also needed to help differentiate them from a key competitor, the Royal College of Music.
Look at the world’s music conservatoires and you quickly realise that they all present themselves in a very similar way. It’s as though they all share the same copywriter – each one saying that they are the ‘world’s greatest’ or that they ‘lead the world’. Very few have memorable visual brands and many share an almost identical photographic style. In the Academy’s case, despite being regularly placed in the world’s top three, they still came across as a little generic.
This was an opportunity to clarify their offer to the outside world. They needed something that resonated with current staff and students, appealed to a global talent pool and – crucially – helped them to raise funds going forward.
We began with the words and over a series of workshops began to develop a new and future-facing brand narrative.
Music must always move forward. There has to be a place for new musicians to connect, collaborate and create. We are that place. A risk-taking conservatoire where the traditions of the past meet the talent of the future. Our mission: to create the music that will move the world tomorrow.
Our next task was how to evolve the academy’s visual identity to reflect the Academy’s style and heritage, yet look forward.
Initially we shied away from musical notation – a bit of a cliché in the broader music sector – but eventually realised that a crescendo symbol was a perfect and ready-made metaphor. It reflects their desire for a more powerful voice, and always shows forward motion along a musical score, never back.
In the new logo a crescendo is used as a subtle underscore and sets the tone for a design toolkit that allows words, images, type and and a three-colour palette to interplay constantly, creating dynamic and unusual layouts.
The design scheme is also pragmatic. It uses Museo – the typeface that the Academy had already installed across all their computers – and retains a simplified version of their Royal crest as an endorsement.
Subtle use of musical notation is included within the scheme – but in a restrained and knowledgeable way.
We’re also using their alumni to suggest to students that they might – just might – be the next in line. And a whole series of still and moving images are being captured and curated to reflect life at the Academy – the concentration and passion of the performers and the unique family atmosphere that the Academy has created.
The photographic and filmic style is deliberately gritty and ‘fly-on-the-wall’ – in deliberate contrast to the ‘perfect’ images used by others, and also lends itself to short animated ‘stings’, such as these.
When they communicate with supporters there’s a special logo variant: The Royal Academy of Music’s Future. This allows their core brand and fundraising brand to neatly co-exist – usually a very difficult task. We’re also using slightly more aspirational language for this audience.
Here are more examples of the design applied to their prospectus, what’s on diaries and stationery. Their new website also mirrors the redesign with a comprehensive overhaul, as shown below.
The next step is new merchandise and a comprehensive signage system.
We hope this new scheme will act as an exciting springboard for the Academy’s future – and for music’s future too. To end, here’s a short film of just one typical day at the academy.
The team
- Strategy and design: Johnson Banks
- Additional copywriting: Nick Asbury, Asbury & Asbury
- Photography: Roscoe Rutter, Michael Johnson, Unsplash
- Film: Ian Anderson and Johnson Banks
- Website: Whitespace
- Crest drawing: Alan Levett