Marché Gare, Visual identity of a concert hall

The Marché Gare is a concert hall located in Lyon, with the SMAC label (contemporary music scene). Its programming is articulated between emerging and confirmed artists, between local and international scenes. Established on the site of the old Lyon wholesale market, in the historic Confluence district, it was first inaugurated in 2006 and will be completely renovated to reopen in 2022, after 4 years of extensive work. Now composed of two concert halls with 400 and 100 seats, the Marché Gare offers not only some sixty concerts per year, but also exhibitions, screenings, conferences and welcomes artists in residence for learning and creation periods.

Graphéine was commissioned to rethink the visual identity and signage.

Logotype: structure and lines of force

The architectural structure as a support for the definition of the logotype. The main lines of the building are isolated and then extruded, allowing recognition of the place and formal continuity with the previous logo.

The logotype as compositional structure: the artist on the stage

On the Marché Gare posters and communications, the logotype expands to become a compositional grid and occupies the space of the medium. The event program, text or image, takes place within this framework. Thus, the artist appears on stage directly from the poster.

The typographic palette is composed in Girott (Radim Pesko, 2016) and Helvetica (Max Medinger, 1957). The brutalism of the first typeface, highly identifiable by its design and proportions, contrasts with the neutrality of the second.

Signage

The project includes the design of the building’s signage system. It is designed in continuity with the graphic principle of visual identity. The forms that define the logotype are extracted to constitute an informative and directional signage language.