Aspen Responsive Logo
Description
Known for its first-rate concert programming and prestigious music education programs since 1949, the Aspen Music Festival and School annually assembles promising classical music talent with international stars on the grand stage that is the Rocky Mountains.
Aspen Music Festival and School’s wordmark references music notation including an A-S ligature inspired by the treble clef, ball terminals reflecting sheet music typography and music notes, and a shifting baseline which imitates the way notes move up and down on the staff. The overall silhouette of the logo is inspired by the steep Rocky Mountains that host the festival.
Built using a combination of p5.js and variable font technology, the wordmark is music-reactive. Interpolating through variations of baseline and distortion, the letterforms of the wordmark respond to both volume and pitch of live audio input. As they travel up and down, the letterforms create different mountainous landscapes. The sound directly informs the movement of the logo without artificial easing or smoothing of motion to most accurately represent the imperfect raw expression of music with vibrato and all. The result allows the logo to behave like different instruments accordingly, sometimes appearing like the bows of the strings section, and sometimes like the struck keys of a piano.
