Let's make something brilliant
Let's make something brilliant
The Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra is an established youth orchestra in Vancouver who were, at the time of engagement, coming up on their 90th year. In advance of that year, they wanted to completely overhaul their brand and web presence, complete with a complex back-end architecture to suit the various requirements of the individual orchestras, sessional instructors, conductors, and students, to alleviate administrative pressure from the organization itself.
The Orchestra is an institution in Vancouver, and as an adolescent musician I have memories of the players, music, and concerts of the VYSO. I leaned on my nostalgic experience of the Orchestra and dove into experiencing them as a branding and web consultant. I met with key staff and students, attended their shows, evaluated past materials and looked at international colleagues and equals in the youth music scene. I spoke to professional musicians about colours and fonts, and what stood out for them as resonant within the culture of classical music and music performance.
The iconography of the VYSO logo comes from the formation of an orchestra, and gives each level of the orchestra a different, unique, and equally vibrant role in the cohesive symphony. In the VYSO their foundational teachings of music at every level are crucial to young player development, and serious commitment to musical expression and perfection happens at every age, so each level, while they grow stronger or larger, is no less important than the one preceding.
I worked with the colour theory and representation throughout the website design, bringing a sense of professionalism and cleanliness to a fun and vibrant palette that the students could relate to.
With the VYSO, myself and a web developer then worked on their long term vision for the website. We worked with them to determine functionality that could be taken from their team and done in an automated way through their website.
I worked with them on how to authentically translate their new visual identity not only online, but to all print materials going forward, and how to best use their marketing budget to achieve brand awareness and conversion, both for prospective students, and concert guests.
The VYSO continue to be a leader in childrens’ extracurricular musical education in the Lower Mainland of Vancouver, and are known for their excellence Canada-wide. With the elevation of their brand, work on their 90th (and upcoming 95th) year campaigns, as well as their holistic brand identity through print and online visual materials, they are positioning themselves as a forward-thinking organization.
Through the use of their online tools and infrastructure we have alleviated a huge administrative load from the organization, allowing prospective and current students, and instructors and conductors, to audition, communicate, and log work in a seamless and cost-efficient way.