Chicago Symphony Logo Brings Red Into The Concert Hall

The Chicago Symphony is changing its look for the first time in roughly 30 years. Its black C, drawn in the style of a musical clef, is being retired for a red logo with a much subtler musical note worked into the design. There are new names across the organization as well, and even the ushers are getting red uniforms. It’s a fairly extensive makeover for an institution that has been part of Chicago since 1891.

The project started about four years ago. The problem wasn’t really the old logo. It was everything that had accumulated around it.

There was the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, the nonprofit behind the orchestra. Then there was the Chicago Symphony Orchestra itself, Symphony Center on Michigan Avenue and Symphony Center Presents for visiting artists. The same organization also included the Chicago Symphony Chorus, Civic Orchestra of Chicago and the Negaunee Music Institute. Longtime concertgoers probably knew where everything belonged. Someone encountering the CSO for the first time had quite a few names to figure out.

The rebrand cuts through some of that. The parent organization becomes simply Chicago Symphony, while the Chicago Symphony Orchestra keeps its full name. Symphony Center is changing to Chicago Symphony Center, and Symphony Center Presents becomes Chicago Symphony Presents. The latter will continue to cover performances outside the orchestra’s own program, including jazz, chamber music and piano recitals.

The Negaunee Music Institute will also add Chicago Symphony to its name. The chorus and Civic Orchestra keep theirs.

So there’s no dramatic renaming of the orchestra itself. The change is really about making Chicago Symphony much harder to lose among all the other titles.

The new logo gives the system something fresh to put at the top. The old black C had been around since the 1990s and made its musical connection obvious, borrowing the curves of a clef. Its replacement is red and more abstract. Music is still in there — the design includes a note motif — but it doesn’t announce the reference quite so loudly.

Red is a bigger part of the makeover than the logo alone suggests. The ushers at Chicago Symphony Center will now wear bold red uniforms, taking the new palette off the page and into the hall itself. For regular visitors, that may be the first part of the new identity they actually notice.

It also gives an organization associated with black concert clothes and formal evenings a useful shot of color. There’s no attempt to make the CSO suddenly look casual or trendy. It just looks less reserved.

The naming changes are similarly practical. Chicago Symphony Presents tells you immediately who is behind a concert, even when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra isn’t performing. Chicago Symphony Center does the same thing for the building. Neither requires much explanation, which is probably the point.

Big entertainment names have understood the value of that simplicity for a long time. Disney can attach its name to very different businesses and still leave each of them plenty of room for its own identity. Sony does much the same across music, film and entertainment: the familiar parent name provides the connection, while the individual divisions and projects don’t have to look alike. Chicago Symphony is obviously working on a far smaller scale, but its branding problem was similar. One recognizable name is easier to follow than a collection of names whose relationship isn’t immediately clear.

There’s an audience question behind the change, too. Chicago Symphony wants to attract younger and more diverse visitors, something classical organizations across the country have been working on for years. New programming aimed at teenagers and college students is already part of that effort.

A new logo isn’t going to turn someone into a classical music fan. It can, however, make the organization around the music feel a little easier to approach. That’s particularly useful when the same institution presents a Mahler symphony one night, a jazz concert another evening and education programs elsewhere in the city.

The rebrand arrives at a good moment for another reason. Klaus Mäkelä will officially become the orchestra’s new music director next fall. He is already appearing on the performance calendar, with works by Sibelius and Shostakovich among the programs he is conducting. His arrival gives the CSO a new public face just as the organization introduces a new visual one.

The timing wasn’t created overnight. Four years is a long development period for a rebrand, but there was plenty to sort through here. Chicago Symphony wasn’t designing a single badge for a single ensemble. The identity had to stretch from one of the world’s best-known orchestras to a chorus, a training orchestra, guest concerts, education work and the building itself.

That helps explain why the new system relies so heavily on the Chicago Symphony name. Instead of inventing another visual language for every branch, it gives them a clear family connection.

There have been changes behind the scenes as well. The organization has reached a new three-year agreement with musicians represented by the Chicago Federation of Musicians, Local 10-208 of the American Federation of Musicians. President Jeff Alexander described it as a sensible agreement in the current economic climate, while union president BJ Levy pointed to inflation, workload and the level of musicianship required at the CSO.

That development is separate from the rebrand, but it adds to what is already a busy period for the organization. A new music director is coming. A long-term labor agreement is in place. The public identity is being cleaned up at the same time.

The old black C doesn’t need to be treated as a logo that somehow failed. Three decades of use suggest exactly the opposite. It was compact, recognizable and had a clever musical idea built into it. But it belonged to a branding system that had become increasingly crowded.

The red replacement arrives with a simpler job. Put Chicago Symphony front and center, then make it clear what comes underneath.

Visitors will see the difference in plenty of small ways: a new name on the building, Chicago Symphony Presents on a jazz or piano program, red uniforms in the hall and a new logo where the black C used to be. None of those changes alters what happens onstage.

They do make the organization surrounding that stage considerably easier to recognize.