The northern lights, but sexier: Bold blends the aurora and music for Eurovision 2024’s identity

“The pressure was definitely on!” says Bold’s Design Director Sidney Lim, when asked about the studio’s experience of branding Eurovision 2024. This year, Eurovision – the world’s largest annual live television event – held the competition’s 68th edition in Sweden. Bold was brought on to lead the event’s annual identity refresh, and for a spectacle with such a sweeping reach and fan base, the task was rightfully a bit daunting. “I’m quite a big Eurovision fan myself! Having followed the show since 2016, I’m acutely aware of Eurovision’s long-storied history and its legions of superfans who live and breathe all things ESC and have strong opinions about everything from the performances down to the design of the scoreboard,” Lim tells us. Right from the get-go, the team at Bold knew that they wanted to land on a concept that could be “explained in one simple sentence, that everyone young and old would understand easily,” shares Lim. The northern lights, a natural wonder that people commonly associate with Sweden was the first piece of the puzzle. The second was the visual patterns of a music equaliser. “We blended the aurora’s dreamy ethereal look with the sharp geometry of music equalisers, before remixing it all in the neon-pop colours of Eurovision’s core palette to create the ‘Eurovision Lights,’” says Lim. In short, he explains, ‘Eurovision Lights’ = the northern lights, but amped up to be much more electric and musical. “By meshing the northern lights with sound equalisers, we were able to embody two halves of a whole – nature and technology; visual and audio; Nordic and universal.” In developing the visual system, Bold was faced with a dilemma. Their research showed that the identities of Eurovision for the past 10-12 years were quite maximalist – blending highly intricate graphics, glowing effects and sleek 3D renders, “an aesthetic that is extremely appropriate and fitting for the over-the-top visual spectacle of Eurovision,” admits Lim. But Swedish design, on the other hand, is known for its ‘less is more’ mantra. To ensure that the identity could flex both ways, Bold ensured that the foundation of the system was stripped back – the linear gradient building blocks, devoid of any details or embellishments, made more space for the electric colour palette and the energetic motion system. This simplicity, in turn, allowed them to swiftly experiment with different patterns and colours before customising them to fit the graphics for each specific touchpoint or country. “For example, the ‘home look’ of the show was in a pink-orange-yellow combination; the voting segments had dark purple gradients whereas the on-air broadcast graphics always utilised the full brand colour palette,” Lim explains. “It was really fulfilling to see how we could visually differentiate each section of the show to keep things fresh, while always appearing coherent and true to the 2024 identity.”