Walt Disney Concert Hall at sunset

Walt Disney Concert Hall: The voice of a landmark

BMD developed an original visual signature and environmental graphics for Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall (WDCH), the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.

Walt Disney Concert Hall

The WDCH extends across an entire city block. Our challenge was to create a signature identity that would resonate with Gehry’s iconoclast building design, without mimicking it. All signage had to be scalable in tone; to feel at home with Philharmonic formal and downtown funky in equal measures. BMD tested over 5,000 existing typographic variants using an animation technique appropriate to the Disney-roots of the building.

Signage for The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Atrium
Wayfinding Signage

We integrated the typography by embedding the information into the material itself, creating perforations in the metal to allow light to emanate from within.

Close-up of perforated metal signage
Close-up of perforated metal signage
Metal signage

By animating fonts and exploring the in-between frames as one font transformed into another, we invented a dynamic and flexible new font which we dubbed “A Font Called Frank.” After testing it by creating posters for everything from a John Cage concert to a Wagner opera, we applied our invention to the building.

 

We integrated the typography by embedding the information into the material itself, creating perforations in the metal to allow light to emanate from within. The full system included wayfinding, signage and donor recognition.

Metal wayfinding for Alfred E. Mann Los Angeles Philharmonic Center
Metal signage
Metal signage
“One of the world's most admired concert halls.”
Architect Magazine
Plaque in ground
Walt Disney Concert Hall garden spiral
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Project for Public Spaces