Creative victory crowning the 140th jubilee season of the Liszt Academy

Together with the 1st prize of Hypnosis, the new corporate image and communication of the Liszt Academy (in use since the autumn of 2013) has been awarded for the thirteenth time. Hypnosis, one of the most prestigious competitions of the Hungarian advertising and creative industry, received 232 entries, out of which 106 works became shortlisted. The composition of the jury is absolutely unique compared to other Hungarian competitions, as its members are mainly editors of leading international advertising communication and marketing magazines and journals. The mission of the competition is to draw attention to exceptionally creative design solutions, which are outstanding and exemplary due to their originality and high-quality realization. The advertising campaign Liszt Academy - the music, for 140 years was recognised with the gold certificate in the category „outdoor” at the award ceremony on 19 May, 2016.

In their advertising campaign, communications director Imre Szabó Stein jointly with Allison Advertising Ltd., tried to capture the most profound essence of the Liszt Academy celebrating the140th anniversary of its foundation in creating its new corporate identity. The creative concept of the creative focuses on the visual existence of music: The calligraphic artwork of graphic artist Boglárka Nádi combines the main façade of the iconic building at Liszt Ferenc Square and the striking Cyan symbolizing renewal. The creative based on the visual comprehension of music in the form of notes drawn on music paper debuted with the jubilee concert magazine presented in May 2015. In addition to wide-scale street advertising and press campaigns, it also reached the television viewers as well as internet users as a short animation film. In this campaign, innovation concentrated on tradition and was produced as a kind of counterweight for the internationally highly acclaimed image film Lisztery presented in January, 2015. 

In connection with the triumph at Hypnosis, Imre Szabó Stein pointed out that: „it is quite interesting and definitely bears a message that the 140th anniversary campaign became triumphant mainly in the Hungarian design scene, while the Lisztery image clip was immensely popular in the international world of advertising and cinematography. When we started working on the new image at the Liszt Academy in 2013, it was not our par excellence intention to amass a large number of awards, but I am now convinced that the prizes of first-rate international and Hungarian competitions do prove that the creative work performed by our team is meaningful. Perhaps, our immediate environment would welcome smaller and slower steps more, but I cannot miss seeing the chance and value in these opportunities (practically from the balcony of the Liszt Academy stretching over world) that enable us to mark novel and original paths in communication, which are not considered a grouse but is acknowledged and acclaimed by the world. The communications director of the Liszt Academy suggested that these recognitions were important also from another perspective, as the work had been produced in a cooperation model that significantly differed from the usual client-agency relationship: both my team and I have a vital role in devising the comprehensive and profound concepts reflected in the corporate image, which naturally does not reduce the merit of the creative producer.

The campaign „The Music, for 140 Years” , as the only cultural institution, won a bronze medal at the 2015 Creative Craft Award announced by the specialist publication Kreatív magazine in the category ’graphic solutions, while it won first prize in the ‘Brochures, leaflets, posters, DM’ category of the 2015 Mediadesign competition. The renewed image and communication created in the spirit of the duality ’patina and progress’ have been nationally and internationally recognized by first-rate professional panels since the reopening of the Liszt Academy in 2013. Right in the first months following the reopening, the uniquely designed, single-evening concert booklet series as well as the artistically designed biannual Concert Magazine containing concert reviews, interviews, essays and articles was awarded the Media Design award. In 2014, the Liszt Academy received the Bronze Blade also for the single-evening concert booklets. In the same year, the Red Dot Design Award, which is regarded as the Oscar of the design industry, was presented to the communications director of the Liszt Academy, Imre Szabó Stein for the first time for the entirely new corporate image of the institution. Still in 2014, the Liszt Academy logo came first at the design competition organized for the 55th time by Communication Arts, the world’s leading visual communications magazine. The image film Lisztery presented at the beginning of the year 2015 debuted at the Chicago Film Festival and won the Silver Hugo prize, and shortly afterwards, the image spot of the Liszt Academy Concert Centre was recognised again with the Red Dot Design Award. The half a minute-long spot was acknowledged not only by creativity experts but also by the professionals of cinematography: The director of photography, Balázs Dobóczy’s work received the 2015 Golden Eye Prize. In the autumn of 2015, the renewed corporate identity of the Liszt Academy was deemed as being exemplary and was awarded a certificate of merit by the Jury of the Design Management Award. The campaign „The Music, for 140 Years” was then awarded the Media Design prize as well as the Kreatív Craft Award. The latest, third prize of the campaign The Liszt Academy – The Music, for 140 years crowned the jubilee season of 2015/16 of the 140th anniversary of the institution, which is to come to an end this month.