La Seine Musicale (2022–)
Opened in 2017, La Seine Musicale is a cultural site in the city of Boulogne-Billancourt which is located southwest of Paris. It is a flagship in a twofold way: first of all, it is the most ambitious cultural project of the city and the county of Hauts-de-Seine, and secondly, it sits on an island in the river Seine which makes the building look a bit like an ocean liner. Formerly the site of a huge Renault car manufacturing plant that was demolished in the early 2000s, the island was architecturally redeveloped by Pritzker Prize winner Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines.
The venue is equipped for all sorts of cultural events, from exhibitions to theater to film screenings, but at its the core there is music of all sorts. La Seine Musicale houses three stages. The smallest, Petite Seine, provides space for 100 to 200 attendants for unamplified live music in an intimate setting. On the other end of the range is Grande Seine, one of France’s biggest stages that can accommodate up to 6,800 spectators and perfectly suits the biggest stars (this recently included Usher). Between the two is the Auditorium Patrick Devedjian which can host around 1,100 people and is dedicated mainly to unplugged classical and jazz music. It is the most emblematic of the stages as it sits directly inside the cupola landmark of the building with its rotating sail composed of solar cells.
The complex is also home to the internationally acclaimed Insula Orchestra and RIFFX Studios, the largest music recording studio of the greater Paris area. The SeineLab workshops allow folks young and old to lear about all aspects around music, its recording and computer technologies.
Since 2022, the primary typeface used in the visual identity is Mars. Designed by Alaric Garnier, the sans serif is available from Production Type. (Side note: for its first season, La Seine Musicale featured another typeface by Production Type, Wigrum.) Mars comes in three widths, all of which are put to use on the website as well as in social media. The logo is custom drawn.
Website detail with an overview of the various stages. Text in Mars Standard is combined with headings in Mars Extended.
For teaser graphics, Mars Condensed is often used in obliqued capitals set on a sloping baseline.
Website detail with spectacular stage photography and white-on-dark typography
Mars Condensed in uppercase for the title and mixed case for the protagonists
Website detail with timeline, featuring the medium width of Mars
In the series “Le saviez-vous?” (“did you know?”), the social media team provides a look behind the scenes.
Some graphics feature a seal-like device with a circular setting.
Mars Extended in uppercase characters
Playlist for March 2023 with a mini-LTypI (Mars is French for March).
