Marseille-Provence European Capital of Culture 2013

Back in 2013, Marseille was designated as the European Capital of Culture, a label coveted by all European Union cities. A place of intense economic and cultural exchanges between the two shores of the Mediterranean, Marseille occupies a special place in France. The event reduced the distances in the territory, bringing Arles, Salon-de-Provence, Martigues, Aix-en-Provence, Aubagne, and Istres closer together. The partners were committed to creating a large scale, internationally renowned cultural event that promotes the cultural identities of the region through a dialogue between Europe and the Mediterranean. This project aimed to bring together all relevant stakeholders, producing lasting impacts on the cultural, economic, urban, and social aspects of the territory, with the goal of enhancing its international appeal and visibility.

Lyon-based graphic designer Thomas Serrière was in charge of creating the identity for the event. He worked on various mediums, from posters to badges, from signage to flyers, to cover the whole event.

From Thomas Serrière’s Behance page:

The identity is based on a typographical system. I designed a complete visual language in order to provide the maximum versatility and expression across every channel, format or material. The typeface was developed with André Baldinger, adapting his BVH BDot in which we introduced little “diamonds”. The MP2013 logo itself consists of a very tiny hyphen, linking all the places, events, dates of the capital year.

The logo combines BVH BLine and FF DIN Round. Some applications additionally use FF DIN.