SING, FIGHT, WEEP, PRAY

Music from the Reformations
Utrecht, August 25th/ September 3rd

It is 500 years since Luther nailed his 95 theses to the doors of the Castle Chapel in Wittenberg. The rapid dissemination of his message – initially in print and later also by means of music – set in motion a revolutionary machine whose field of influence stretched far beyond religion alone. A somewhat delayed but no less innovative reaction developed in response: the Counter-Reformation.

These are the main themes of Utrecht Early Music Festival 2017 and the whole graphic image is - of course! - absolutely close to them, focusing on the main topics, reinterpreting them with a modern but traditional look and feel.

LETTERING: a strong customization transforms the sans serif lettering (made up with the OOM font) into a serif one. It clearly reminds to Gothic and German types, with a very contemporaneous touch. The use of pink helps the lettering to stand out from the background, while the 4 overlapping letters layers create a 3D visual, with letters “singing, fighting, weeping and praying” together.

ENGRAVE: OOM posters traditionally use a full size background image, and 2017 poster it is not an exception. It’s lovely to keep traditions alive! The engrave comes from Gutenberg’s Bible and focuses around a foot stepping forward: a clear remind to Luther’s message and its rapid diffusion. Print and printing process: there’re many elements belonging to early print/ engrave process, especially in the brochure layout.
First of all, every line in the brochure (but also in the Festival book) has an “early print style”, that means it looks like it was handrawn, engraved and printed. The layout has a classical - centered - style (with many “modern” interferences) and uses typographic decorations inspired to Aldo Manuzio’s books.

UNEXPECTED ELEMENTS: the new layout has to be surprising and welcoming, but we also wanted to add some unforeseen and “annoying” element. That’s why you can find some “pop-up” information that seem to be placed “by chance”, that’s why we added insects in calendar pages: a remind of omnia vanitas. Calendar pages disclose another disturbing element in the use of images. Paintings (portraits by Lucas Cranach the Elder) have very strange cuts. These close ups show mouth or hands, only.
The aim is to point out, once again, one of main Reformation topic: the supremacy of word over images.

More on the Festival and Organisatie Oude Muziek