With eID to a synesthetic experience.Das Ensemble electronic ID
Das Ensemble electronic ID (eID) from Cologne explores the possibilities of 21st-century music, stage and performance formats. The ensemble sees itself as a platform for collaboration between diverse artists who engage with phenomena of contemporary culture.
Guiding Ideas
How do you develop a visual identity for an experimental art ensemble?
As the ensemble sharpened its strategic direction, it wanted a visual identity that would make its philosophy, goals and activities tangibly experienceable, turning its communication into part of the overall oeuvre. The result is a visual translation of eID’s experimental influences, charmingly bringing the synthesizer aesthetic of the 1980s into the here and now, including type and color clashes.
With the beauty of chance, every visit to the site creates new aesthetic compositions that stage the website’s many nooks and angles in fresh ways.
Going all in on the keys for once - what designer does not dream of that?
Execution
Refreshingly different, with new visual worlds on every click
From the start, we knew that the usual tools inside our design comfort zone would not take us far enough to do justice to eID’s work. So we went looking for new, unfamiliar ingredients for an extraordinary design menu: a ruthlessly retro screen typeface, loud pixel landscapes that constantly build and dissolve, interactive elements such as 3D portraits of ensemble members, and a sound synthesizer that lets website visitors create AI-supported sounds. These are just some of the elements that produce the rich, intense visual experience. The AI synthesizer was contributed by the Berlin AI agency Birds On Mars. To make the whole thing digestible and internally harmonious, our corporate design skills came in very useful again.
At the center is a logo that compresses the entire visual world into just a few pixels, and of course moves wherever possible.
When deriving applications from the design system, the key is to find the right language and technical execution for each medium, including analog formats such as posters and flyers.
Worth taking a closer look - no problem with the 3D portraits on the ensemble page. The renderings recall the Kraftwerk aesthetic that helped make that pioneering band so successful.
Communication
Building and developing a community
Building and growing a community is an exciting and rewarding task. For an avant-garde ensemble such as electronic ID it is essential, because its communication depends on digital word of mouth and can easily inform and involve members of the community.
Every ensemble lives through and for its concerts. Or events. Or performances. The website provides plenty of information and ticket links.
Other elements of eID communication include a newsletter and several social media channels. Here, too, the eID identity remains clearly recognizable.
Artificial Intelligence
Cooperation with Birds on Mars
The Berlin AI agency explores interactions between human creativity and machine intelligence, creating compelling applications that make this work tangible in many fields.
The music of eID, videos of the ensemble’s performances and input from the user’s camera are some of the ingredients used by the Birds On Mars AI synthesizer to make visitors to the eID website part of the creation and performance process. It is exciting now, and will become even more exciting as the synthesizer continues to evolve, all the way to integrating its results into eID live performances.
A module with development potential: the AI synthesizer by Birds On Mars.
A system designed for expansion and extension. The technology comes from Birds on Mars in Berlin; we developed the user interface.
