Sibelius 150 and Lapland
The iconic image for the Jean Sibelius 150th anniversary festival, and the national destination brand it led to.
For the 150th anniversary of Jean Sibelius, we created the festival’s main image for UniArts Helsinki. It became the face of the celebration, and it opened the door to a national brand and a UK campaign.
Across 2014 and 2015 we designed the central visual for the Sibelius 150 festival, produced by UniArts Helsinki to mark 150 years since the composer’s birth. The image had to carry a figure every Finn knows, feel current rather than nostalgic, and hold up everywhere it would live. It became the festival’s signature and ran across the full edition, on posters, tickets and billboards.
On the strength of that work, the Government of Finland commissioned us to create a destination brand for the country’s north. The core requirement was unusual: one identity that reads as Lapland in English and Lappi in Finnish, switching by language without becoming two different brands. We built a system where the wordmark and visual language stay recognisably the same across both.
We then developed an advertising campaign aimed specifically at the UK market, running in magazines and on large-format billboards, adapting the identity to each format while keeping it unmistakably one brand.
Project info
Requirements
Create the main image for the Sibelius 150 festival for UniArts Helsinki, strong enough to lead posters, tickets and billboards for the whole edition. Then, for the Government of Finland, a single destination identity that works as both Lapland (English) and Lappi (Finnish), plus a UK-facing advertising campaign for magazines and out-of-home.
Strategies & techniques
Brand strategy · Visual identity · Bilingual wordmark and logo system · Art direction · Poster, ticket and program design · Out-of-home and large-format design · Magazine advertising · Campaign adaptation across formats
Tools
Ideation: moodboards and sketching, references shared on Trello and Slack. Design and artwork: Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign for identity, print and large-format layouts. Delivery: print-ready artwork and brand guidelines for posters, tickets, magazines and billboards.
Final results
The festival image became the recognisable face of Sibelius 150 and ran across the full edition, on posters, tickets and billboards. Its success led directly to a national commission from the Government of Finland for the Lapland and Lappi identity, and to a UK advertising campaign in magazines and out-of-home. One festival visual turned into an ongoing brand relationship.
Photo gallery
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