SAN ANTONIO PHILHARMONIC
Branding | Brand Launch
project background
When the San Antonio Philharmonic was established after the abrupt dissolution of the San Antonio Symphony in the summer of 2022, its musicians and supporters needed to create a new organization to keep the symphony’s world-class talent in San Antonio, and they needed to do it fast. While the musicians focused on building an all new organization from the ground up and planning the upcoming season, Robot Creative helped them create and launch both a new brand and a fully functional website with ticketing in 60 days for the orchestra’s inaugural season.
challenge and goals
In July 2022, the musicians setting up the new Philharmonic approached Robot Creative with a brief that was both tempting and challenging: create a new brand, a new website, launch both and sell tickets in time for a season that was to begin just 60 days later. A San Antonio company that sympathized with the urgent need to find a solution both for the musicians and the city, Robot accepted the challenge. In addition to ensuring continuity for local musicians and music lovers, Robot helped the start-up Philharmonic develop a new brand identity that better reflects the rich history, culture and diversity of the local community and helps make symphonic music more accessible to the same highly diverse community.
logo development
One key goal for the orchestra’s new logo was to make it more approachable and inclusive than is often the case for classical symphonic or philharmonic orchestras. It had to look and feel like San Antonio. Robot tapped into the colors, shapes, and artwork from several Latin American countries as well as regional and local sources to inform and inspire the logo mark. After taking in Latin American painting, art paper, embroidery and tile art, among other sources of inspiration, Robot proposed a logo that celebrates the city’s unique spirit through bright colors and a jubilant shape that evoke an orchestra, musical expression, diversity and community. Bonus: A variation on the name and logo gives the orchestra an approachable nickname, SA Phil, that resonates well with the local community who refer to San Antonio as “SA”.
brand boards
Expanding on the logo, Robot developed conceptual renderings of how the brand could unfold in various mediums and applications. The mockups include a website, apparel, stationery, digital advertising, social posts and color/imagery guidelines. Like the logo, the focus was to communicate an approachable brand that reflects a sense of place and community.
brand boards
Expanding on the logo, Robot developed conceptual renderings of how the brand could unfold in various mediums and applications. The mockups include a website, apparel, stationery, digital advertising, social posts and color/imagery guidelines. Like the logo, the focus was to communicate an approachable brand that reflects a sense of place and community.
brand application
Robot also developed a complete branding package from wall-sized patterned murals and retractable banners to lapel pins in order to ensure consistency while also creating flexibility in how the brand’s identity can be applied.
brand launch
Collaborating with the orchestra team, the urgency of the project required Robot not only to create a full set of visuals but also to build a fully functioning, user-friendly website but integrate and test all-important ticketing, subscription and donation functions. The orchestra team took care of the uploading of all the content. Read more about the website project here.
- Website
- Digital Marketing
- Social Media Setup
- Season Opening Flyer
- Order Form
- Consulting
“The San Antonio Philharmonic’s new logo design and branding takes inspiration from the city’s vibrant and diverse culture. We really liked how you could “hear” one of the variations of the logo and including the nickname ‘SA Phil’, feels very approachable. It was a pleasure to collaborate with the creative minds at Robot Creative to develop our new identity.”
outcomes
The musicians and sponsors were very pleased with the new brand identity, and the website provided the infrastructure needed for the Philharmonic to able to immediately sell tickets and subscriptions and accept donations for the upcoming season. Our digital campaign efforts have produced 6.5 million impressions and 37,200 clicks to the website, leading to a significant percentage of revenue now generated by the website. After the successful launch and development of a strong relationship with the Philharmonic, Robot became a corporate sponsor and Lara August, Robot’s CEO, was invited to join the Philharmonic’s Board of Directors.
