Musical Animated Campaign Celebrates Holidays with San Francisco Symphony

The San Francisco Symphony has unveiled a series of animated promos, entitled ‘Holidays with the Symphony’, ahead of this year’s festive period. Motion design studio BIEN handled art direction for the campaign, which includes a 15” digital ad and posters, among other assets.

Since the conception of the San Francisco Symphony, the holidays have been its most popular annual season, with families from around the city ritually coming together to watch classics like ‘The Nutcracker’. To honour this cultural moment in 2023, the Symphony enlisted the talents of motion design studio BIEN to utilise its brand palette and custom font in a magical campaign.

The BIEN team took inspiration from the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall building, in particular its structural components. Its iconic plexiglass sound diffusers became the shape of the mortise housing the Symphony’s original IP, while the rectangular windows lining the top of the hall were used as "musical blocks", to be animated to the score provided for the campaign.

In addition to a tight timeline and budget constraints, the creative request posed the challenge of evoking two opposing styles: a classic holiday feel that pushes the boundaries for a modern and sleek aesthetic. To tackle this, BIEN dedicated much of their time to carefully considering the initial style frames before moving any further into animation. The team collaborated closely with the client to ensure they had got it right, course correcting in between milestones, in a fast and furious start to production which, once on track, moved smoothly towards final delivery.

Larry Williams, creative director, San Francisco Symphony: “We were looking for a creative partner to elevate our ‘Holidays with the Symphony’ campaign. With meticulous attention to detail and more than a dash of whimsy, BIEN’s design and animation captures the festive spirit of our holiday programming in a fresh and exciting way. We are deeply grateful for their unparalleled talent, expertise, and collaborative spirit. The end result is a joyful design that we can’t wait to share with the world.”

The project serendipitously holds a special place in the heart of animation supervisor, Elena Dreyer, after whose great grandmother, Louise M. Davies, the Symphony Hall was named. Louise dedicated a large portion of her husband’s wealth towards the arts, notably helping the Symphony gather the money it needed to be built, and initiating the Symphony’s yearly ‘Deck The Hall’ event. Elena’s grandmother, Maryon Davies Lewis, continued to donate and fundraise for the Symphony, and passed the family ritual of attending frequently down to Elena’s generation.

Elena Dreyer, animation producer, BIEN: “I’m very grateful to have this chance to help an institution that has meant so much to my family over the generations. It’s truly remarkable that, without knowing my history, the project came in when it did and BIEN chose me to produce it. The Symphony actually reached out to BIEN with the request the very same week that I was home in San Francisco to be with my grandmother, and she passed the week that we signed on. So for me, it was a deeply personal coincidence that I could be a part of producing the 2023 holiday campaign and honour my grandmother and great-grandmother’s memories in that way.”