The A38 concert ship of Budapest revamped with Morse code

One of the Hungarian capital’s most iconic music venues has entered its own ‘roaring twenties,’ and is celebrating with a new look.

As A38 Ship turned 20 this year, it was the perfect opportunity to revamp the identity of the iconic Budapest club. The Russian avant-garde, post-industrial roots, and shipping character live on from the identity concept created five years ago, but now in a new, simplified visual framework.

On April 30, 2003, American saxophonist Maceo Parker’s more than three-hour concert was the first to fill the Ship’s concert hall. At the time, the venue’s principal means of communication were posters designed by Andrej Tóth, who created the Ship’s visual language. “Twenty years is a long time, so we thought we could go back to the beginning, when we used duotone—two colors—for our posters, in the Russian Constructivist style, (also) for printing reasons. Simplicity and minimalism are our two keywords. Once again our two primary colors, red and blue, dominate, now more fresh and vibrant thanks to the online world,” explains Andrej Tóth, graphic designer and visual artist, art director of the Ship’s current design world, their new identity.

In Budapest today, when someone says they are going to “The Ship”, it is clear to everyone that the destination is A38. “The Ship” as a core symbol has become synonymous with the A38 brand in the city’s slang, so the previous identity design—which won gold at the Kreatív Mediadesign Awards—built adaptable symbols from the nautical flags used by ships to communicate with each other. However, due to the simplification of the visual language, these now only appear in the logo, replaced by the more streamlined Morse code: short and long rhythms break up the arrangement of band photos and concert information on the various brand-related and branded content-carrying media. A special logo was designed for the anniversary and related events, using Morse code to represent the number 20. But the Morse code is not the only new element in the fresh identity. Simple geometric shapes also help bring together band photos and concert information, often in very different formats, so that both still and landscape images form a single creative.

For more information about the A38 birthday program, visit the website.

Source: Press Release

• design
• brand
• a38 ship