Aberdeen City Orchestra & Citymoves

Citymoves Dance Agency and Aberdeen City Orchestra are two key cultural organisations based in Aberdeen, each playing a vital role in the city’s vibrant arts scene.

Citymoves is North East Scotland’s regional dance agency, offering community classes, professional residencies, and performance opportunities, including the annual DanceLive Festival. Their work supports dance across all ages and abilities, promoting creativity and inclusion.

Aberdeen City Orchestra (ACO) is a non-professional symphony orchestra known for high-quality performances and community engagement. Since 1982, it has brought together talented local musicians and provided opportunities for youth involvement in classical music.

Together, they represent the richness and diversity of Aberdeen’s performing arts community.

The Challenge

Citymoves and Aberdeen City Orchestra needed bold, engaging visuals to promote their seasonal performances. Citymoves required posters, social media assets, programmes, and outdoor advertising for its DanceLive festival, while ACO needed marketing for its 2024/25 concert series. Both wanted energetic, visually striking designs that reflected the talent of their performers and captured public attention — all delivered to tight deadlines and ready for print.

Our Approach

Each project began with a creative planning session and concept sketches, shaped by past materials and client goals. Citymoves’ designs focused on movement and energy, while ACO’s drew on the emotion and rhythm of classical music. Although the visual styles were different, each campaign used consistent design cues to create brand recognition. The process was collaborative, with regular reviews to fine-tune each piece across both print and digital formats.

The Solution

Rocket 5 delivered a wide range of print-ready assets — including posters in multiple sizes, digital and print programmes, social media graphics, business cards, and large-scale outdoor ads. Citymoves’ visuals used bold colours and geometric shapes to frame imagery of performers, while ACO’s materials incorporated musical motifs to reflect their repertoire. All artwork was created in Photoshop and Illustrator, and prepared for high-res output across platforms.

The Results

Both Citymoves and Aberdeen City Orchestra were delighted with the final campaigns, leading to ongoing creative partnerships. The designs played a key role in promoting well-attended events, with strong engagement across print and digital platforms. Rocket 5 has continued to work with Citymoves for multiple years of the DanceLive festival, and was also invited to design for Aberdeen City Youth Orchestras — a testament to the strength and trust built through the collaboration. The work not only captured the energy and spirit of the performances, but also helped represent the arts in a vibrant, contemporary way. It remains a proud example of creative concepts turned into lasting, high-impact design.