CDT performs encore with revamped marque for LCO

CDT Design has updated the award-winning visual identity it created for the London Chamber Orchestra 15 years ago, with new-look materials launching from this week.

The work retains the original identity’s logotype, but introduces a ‘vibrant, abstract swirl’, which appears in different colours and manifestations across a range of print materials, including programmes, stationery and leaflets.

It will also be applied to the LCO website, www.lco.co.uk, and to on-stage backdrops within the coming weeks.

According to CDT Design founding partner Mike Dempsey, the ‘immediate, unconscious’ swirls, which are overlapped with different colours, are reflections of the LCO’s performances.

‘As opposed to many orchestras, [LCO’s musicians and principal conductor Christopher Warren-Green] are extremely young and visually terrific to watch. There’s a dynamism in their performances that I wanted to convey,’ he explains.

The consultancy will ‘build on’ the swirls for the LCO’s upcoming six concerts – and then replace them with entirely new ‘visual structures’ in subsequent seasons, according to Dempsey.

CDT Design, which has been working on the project for five weeks, was appointed without a pitch on the strength of its previous work with the orchestra.

Dempsey, CDT Design creative associate Stuart Youngs and designer Sophie Paynter collaborated on the work.

The LCO is Britain’s oldest chamber orchestra and divides its time between UK concerts, international tours, education and outreach programmes, and recordings.