De Bijloke
Described as the “oldest music venue in the world”, De Bijloke is a music center in Ghent that operates out of a structure dating back to 1251. They worked with Marina Willer’s team at Pentagram to work on a new identity, representing a rich and diverse musical program that encompasses classical music, jazz, experimental work, and family events.
The elegant, swooping logo is based around the idea of connection, and was inspired by John Cage’s unconventional musical notation and sonic waveforms created by an oscilloscope. According to Pentagram, “it is fluid, intuitive and yet – like De Bijloke’s highly curated programme – precise and carefully crafted.”
The Jazz and New Music logo variants replaces the abstract shapes with actual oscilloscope-like waveforms, while the Family variant cleverly transforms them into crayon scribbles. These variants also use their own distinctive color palettes.
About the typography, Pentagram says: “In contrast to the expressive logo, typography is modern, clear and confident, with the simple letterforms of Forma DJR providing a neutral balance to the expressive visual identity, while still allowing for creative arrangements in headlines and key messaging.”
Forma DJR’s weight axis is elegantly employed to quickly embolden the type in logo animations, and its Banner optical size is used impeccably for artist names in static and animated posters. With a lowercase j featured so prominently in the logo, the team wisely chose to use is alternate tailed form throughout.
