Much more than just a concert hall, Muziekcentrum De Bijloke is one of Europe's most fascinating music venues, with a history like no other and a vibrant, diverse programme.

Its central performance space features an extraordinary oak roof structure which began life in 1251 as a medieval hospital. Following a major restoration and acoustic redesign, it is now described as the oldest music venue in the world, permanently adapted to a state of the art concert hall coupled with smaller venues of the same acoustic quality. Unlike many traditional concert halls, the audience at De Bijloke wraps around the stage, creating a strong connection with the musicians even from the back of the hall, and making large orchestral performances feel unusually intimate. Music becomes a vivid and unique experience that creates a deep human connection through the act of performing and listening.

Ahead of the launch of the 26/27 season, De Bijloke asked Pentagram to refresh its brand. The task was to create a new digital-first identity to help to attract new music-loving visitors, while at the same time still appeal to its loyal audience. Working closely with the team at De Bijloke, the team designed a flexible, adaptable system that can scale from classical programmes to family events to jazz and experimental work. Alive, open and expressive, it is a living system that’s connected to sound at its very heart, and echoes the idea that at De Bijloke, no two nights are ever the same, and every performance is a unique, memorable and rich experience.

The new brand position summarises De Bijloke as “Alive in Every moment. Past, present and future.” It reflects the different Bijloke concert halls as living spaces, which combine their history with the energy of each specific performance, the chemistry between artists and audiences as well as the context and time in history.

Connecting people through the living power of music is something at De Bijloke which is felt, shared and understood in real time, together. It signals De Bijloke’s new more open, diverse and active musical culture – one that listens to the world around us, and helps people make sense of it. It also presents De Bijloke as a place for profound listening, joy, reflection, perspective and for community.

Taking centre stage, the swooping logo is a visual expression of music as a rich and ever-changing art form. The design is inspired by John Cage’s unconventional music notation methods combined with experiments using the oscilloscope (an analogue tool that visualises audio signals). It is fluid, intuitive and yet – like De Bijloke’s highly curated programme – precise and carefully crafted. 

The verbal language is evocative and intuitive but just as importantly clear when it needs to be, introducing itself as a gracious host, and a thoughtful curator to its vibrant musical programme.

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. 

The colour palette is drawn from the space's unique features found across the building, each working in contrast with vibrant tones from a wide range of hues which represent the breadth and diversity of the music programme. 

Inspired by the expressive nature of the brand, the team also created a series of patterns for use as supporting graphics, ensuring the visual language remains consistent but also flexible across different outputs.

While the De Bijloke brand identity is a coherent language designed to embrace a fluid musical programme, in some cases such as Jazz, New Music the graphics come more directly from the oscilloscope aesthetics, reflecting the experimental, fluid nature of such music. 

De Bijloke Jazz is inspired by the improvisational nature of the genre, while De Bijloke New Music reflects its unexpected nature by pushing the original shape one step further, maintaining the brand’s fluidity while adding a sense of unrestrained expression. 

The Family programme has a more specific approach to reflect its playful nature. Three new patterns were created to represent these genres, and a generative tool for De Bijloke that reinterprets these patterns through the Jazz and New Music lenses. The output is a series of ever changing forms, easily adaptable for motion and exported for any format.

The Pentagram team has designed a flexible, expressive system that reflects both the richness of De Bijloke’s history and the breadth and relevance of its programme today, and in the future. Alive and responsive rather than static, it can shift between the intimate and the grand, the evocative and the informative, while remaining recognisably itself. Above all, it gives De Bijloke a distinctive and welcoming voice that can include everything from classical music and jazz to experimental work, family events and new collaborations, while celebrating the enduring power and relevance of music.

Image credits: 
Sofiane Pamart - Romain Garcin 
Norah Jones - Joelle Grace Taylor
Duval Timothy - Sophie Davidson 
Benjamin Clementine - Akatre Studios
Elena Evstratova - Elena Evstratova

Music credits:
Kita Kaira - Toumani Diabaté and Ballaké Sissoko
My little brown book - Duke Ellington and John Coltrane
Tube recordings - Eva Reiter