Handel and Haydn Society was founded in Boston in 1815 and is the oldest continuously performing arts organization in the United States. It celebrated its bicentennial in 2015. During that season, its visual promotions took on a variety of styles, and I was brought in to rein in the variety and foster visual cohesion as the organization began its 201st year.
The result
A cohesive look across all nine concerts of the season, from subway ads to the gala invitation. It also paved the way for the ensemble’s next visual language, and was my proudest of six seasons I worked with the organization.
Disciplines
Art direction, branding, design, photography
Deliverables
Season brochures, posters, direct mail, program books, email templates, social promotions, video production
Collaborators
Stu Rosner
Background and research
The challenge: A bicentennial season is a hard act to follow. Handel and Haydn marked theirs with special events, a museum exhibit, a coffee table book, and more. The bespoke “200” logo was the main focus of all the concert and fundraising creative, and because it held everything together, the art for each concert could be a little more individual. Once the anniversary was over, so was that glue, and more order needed to be imposed.
Examples of older creative
An idea born from the name
The solution came from the name itself. The diagonal line mnemonic was born out of the name of the ensemble: instead of asking a single image to do all the work of supporting a concert program, one image and another were chosen to work together.
New creative direction
For each of the nine concerts, I combined purpose-shot, handout, and archival photography. Where appropriate, high-profile guest artists or evocative creative imagery sat alongside wider shots of the ensemble performing, communicating both who would be there and the experience the audience could expect.
The design had a second job as well: standing out in Boston’s classical music advertising ecosystem. Each concert was branded with a key color from the brand palette, so that several concerts marketed at the same time still looked distinct from one another. A large URL at the bottom of each piece served as an obvious call to action and another chance to reinforce the organization’s name.
Large format three-sheet posters
Subway advertising
“Kyle is a talented designer with a keen understanding of how to translate an idea into design. His creativity knows no bounds and his work channels a unique vision.”
—Marie-Hélène Bernard, Handel and Haydn Society CEO and executive director
H+H baseball shirts at Fenway Park
Honoring 200 years of history
The brand also needed to nod to its own past. For the 2016 gala, The Society Ball, tickets from the archives were the visual inspiration for the collateral, with contemporary photography on the reverse of each card to supplement the pastiche typography.
Historical ticket
Gala invitation package
Results and impact
Handel and Haydn Society continued to thrive after its bicentennial season. This transitional year of creative paved the way for the ensemble to settle into a new visual language that relies solely on its trademark purple.
It was also the last season for Executive Director and CEO Marie-Hélène Bernard, and the final of six seasons I collaborated with her in various capacities. It’s the one I’m most proud of.