Two years ago, the City of Munich managed to have the "Oktoberfest" brand protected internationally. To further strengthen the brand, the Oktoberfest is now getting a new and uniform design: The curved letter "O" in a modern fracture font symbolizes the Munich Oktoberfest as a concise logo from now on.
The motif has a traditional Bavarian look, is modern at the same time and can be understood worldwide. The logo's creators from the brand agency RED even designed their own new font for it. Selected colors and a uniform visual language complement the design and make it a recognizable appearance. The new branding for the Oktoberfest will now gradually become visible online, in marketing and on the Theresienwiese.
The lively appearance with its colorful and different color gradients is just as varied and colorful as the Oktoberfest and the typical Oktoberfest moments themselves. The dynamic shape of the letter "O" reflects the swing and the "spirit" of the Oktoberfest.
The brand-new brand font called "Wiesn" is based on a traditional broken Fraktur typeface, recalling the festival's founding in 1810, but the new, independent and contemporary typeface is naturally geared towards internationality and optimum legibility.
The entire design thus matches the emotional character of the Oktoberfest: it captures the typical Oktoberfest mood in terms of color and visualizes it as if in a kaleidoscope. Thus, a varied and free corporate design has been created, which enables a long-term development of the brand "Oktoberfest".
Clemens Baumgärtner, Head of Labor and Economic Affairs at the City of Munich: "The Oktoberfest is a unique work of art, a piece of Munich's soul. The Oktoberfest stands for the feeling of home and the hospitality of the people of Munich. A folk festival for everyone, with a variety of pleasurable moments at the highest level of quality. After the brand was registered, it was obvious to design a new image. One that is as unmistakable as the Oktoberfest itself. With RED, we have a partner at our side who perfectly understood and translated these requirements and, together with our project team, is now consistently developing this most important Bavarian brand."
Benedikt Brandmeier is head of tourism, events and hospitality at the Department of Labor and Economic Affairs: "The demand we placed on the new branding: of course it has to be perceived as typically Bavarian, but it also has to combine the tradition of the festival with modernity. And it must be open to interpretation in such a way that it can be understood internationally and works for all target groups. In short: you shouldn't have to explain it, but be able to see it directly: This is the Oktoberfest!"
The brand agency RED prevailed in a multi-stage pitch and developed the corporate design. Michael Mazanec, Managing Director and Creative Director about the thoughts behind the logo: "As an agency, we asked ourselves the question: Which symbol is the right one that can stand for Oktoberfest. We came to the conclusion that the Oktoberfest is so colorful and multi-layered that no single pictorial sign could do justice to these different facets - be it the beer mug, the heart or the Ferris wheel. Rather, it should be abstract, open to interpretation and atmospheric. The initial "O" of the word Oktoberfest meets all these requirements."
All the classic elements of a corporate design were integrated into the creative process: Logo, word/figurative mark, colors, visual language, development of a custom typeface, all the way to a modular design system. For the first time in the history of Oktoberfest, a unified look is thus created to provide a central visual framework for the festival's brand world.
