Pasadena, CA, already supported two successful symphony orchestras when Rachael Worby, who had previously directed the Pasadena Pops, left to initiate a third. The new ensemble was to be unapologetically different: distinctive and modern in its programming, brash and audacious in its performance style, and unfettered by the traditional constraints of a symphony orchestra. It was also slated to launch in the midst of a significant economic downturn.
NAMING THE VISION
Worby, who had worked with DISTINC during her tenure at The Broad Stage, turned again to us for branding guidance. First, the ensemble needed a name, and DISTINC’s team — on the heels of detailed interviews and research process to better understand both the personality of the director (as the new orchestra’s muse) and her strong vision (for something unique) — crafted the moniker MUSE/IQUE. The new name was as modern as the orchestra itself, its mid-word “/” serving both as a symbol of linguistic metamorphosis and a conductor’s raised baton.
MUSE/IQUE’s new name in place, DISTINC worked hand-in-hand with Worby, her board of directors, and her investors to fully extend the brand across web, fundraising, and social media platforms, supporting the MUSE/IQUE website with promotional and marketing tools including frequent blogs, video links, the conductor’s personal iPod playlist, and an affable copywriting style reflecting the .org’s fresh creative mission. Rejecting old school conventions, MUSE/IQUE’s design style embraced bright colors, dynamic imagery, and mixed typefaces, its omnipresent slash lending a simple visual branding consistency.
A FRESH BRAND FOR A NEW TRADITION
Explains Worby: “I’m about trying new things and creating new things and bringing new things into the process, so that so that all the walls that once existed between orchestra and audience are erased.”
“Our job was to capture Rachel’s great idea — to distill it to its essence without weakening it,” adds DISTINC’s creative director, Jean-Marc Durviaux. “The name naturally came together after extensively interviewing Rachael, and she embraced it instantly. It made deploying the entire brand innate and effortless.”
MUSE/IQUE’s sold-out début united DISTINC’s branding skills with Worby’s creative vision: an outdoor event that found Pasadena arts patrons and their families together under the stars on the elegant (and symphonically unconventional) CalTech campus. The performance opened with a rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”; soprano superstar Jessye Norman sang her version of “Summertime”; and MUSE/IQUE’s muse and conductor, Rachel Worby, coaxed the first fanfare from a new orchestra on its way to success.
