thonik makes Phion Symphony Orchestra’s identity move with the music

Where many orchestras have the recognition of a permanent venue, the Phion Symphony Orchestra moves from city to city and programme to programme. Recognition needed to come from somewhere other than architecture. Amsterdam-based studio thonik, brought in for strategic direction, identity, website and campaigns, found the answer in typography. The decision came from a clear-eyed reading of who Phion wanted to be seen by. “The brief was clear. They wanted to reach the audience every cultural organisation is chasing: the creative omnivore,” explains Falco van Burg, Design Lead. Photography was the obvious route, and the one that many cultural organisations take, but it failed the test for thonik. “A photo of a musician doesn’t say much to us. What they play does.” That decision sent the studio toward letterforms as the carrier, and toward a typeface that could behave like the music. thonik also reworked the name, settling on Orkest Phion for home audiences and Phion Symphony Orchestra abroad. They chose GT Planar from Grilli Type, a typeface whose character emerges through movement. “GT Planar has details that only appear when you slant it,” van Burg tells us. “The moment the type tilts, extra forms come out that emphasise its character, and you can feel the typographer knew exactly how it should move.” Tilt it, and the conductor’s baton suggests itself. A baton shapes the air and draws the dynamics out of an orchestra, and the typeface, adapted by thonik to bend left and right as they wanted, does the same across a poster: slowing, accelerating, opening and tightening. In motion, it moves with the rhythm of the piece it carries, kinetic where the music is kinetic and still where the music is still.