Pentagram rebrands De Bijloke, one of Europe’s most vibrant music venues

Muziekcentrum De Bijloke is one of Europe’s most vibrant music venues, and it has a history like no other. The Ghent music centre’s central performance space sits under an oak roof structure that began life in 1251 as a medieval hospital, and a major restoration and acoustic redesign turned it into the concert hall it is today. Ahead of the launch of its 26/27 season, De Bijloke asked Pentagram’s London office for a digital-first identity that would attract new music-loving visitors while still appealing to its loyal audience. For years after that restoration, De Bijloke’s communication was about the building. “The project started from a feeling that our identity and the story we were telling about De Bijloke no longer fully reflected who we had become,” explains Lead of Public & Marketing/Communication, Shari Platteeuw. “We were not looking for a new logo in isolation,” she continues. “We wanted to rethink the brand more fundamentally: our positioning, our visual language and the way we speak about De Bijloke. Pentagram helped us translate the tension that is very specific to this place: eight centuries of history, combined with music that only truly exists in the moment it is performed.” “That eventually became the idea behind the brand: ‘Alive in every moment. Past, present and future,’” Platteeuw adds. Pentagram delivered guidelines with the identity, setting out the principles for its verbal language, in which De Bijloke speaks as a gracious host and a thoughtful curator of its programme.