Apple Music has introduced a new brand identity, including a logo mnemonic, built on a single idea: ‘made by sound’.
Apple wanted the sound to create the visuals — to take the idea of music and distil it into something visually beautiful.
It’s built off the idea of the perfect sound wave. In the process of creating the logo, Apple, working with its long-time creative agency TBWA\Media Arts Lab, took a frequency and played it through a rig. The rig then moved a large amount of liquid at the frequency of the notes.
Apple partnered with Fred again.. and his collaborator NEST Acoustics, to break down the individual notes and create the final mnemonic.
That sound was then used to create the visuals.
The new audio language builds on that idea, giving Apple Music a distinctive sound of its own.
The new wordmark pairs the familiar Apple symbol with a custom version of SF Pro, Apple’s typeface. It takes a design rooted in consistency across Apple’s products and gives it a more individual expression for Apple Music. Bold, lowercase letterforms give the logo a vibrant personality, reflecting the energy of music while remaining unmistakably Apple.
Turning the composition into a visual identity took months of experimentation, collaboration and craft.
The music was played through a transducer — a device that converts an audio signal into physical vibration — set in a shallow bath of mineral oil in motion.
The resulting waves, ripples and refractions were filmed to create the final mark: a physical record of the music rather than just an illustration of it.
The approach also blends sound with Apple’s incredible Liquid Glass design through a lens unique to music.
Waves and vibrations unite with the optical qualities of glass, creating a visual language that carries through the wider identity.
The world will start to see the new Apple Music design across original content and event programming beginning this week.
Apple Music teased the new word mark late last month as part of the marketing for its new live music venue Apple Music Hall based in London.
A new expressive musical note icon takes its shape from the movement and refractions captured in camera, carrying that energy into the wider visual identity.
A companion film follows the journey from the original composition to the finished identity, experimentation and craft behind the work.
Built on a single idea, made by sound, Apple Music’s new brand identity spans marketing, product and experiences, putting music at the heart of how the brand looks, moves and sounds.
CREDITS:
Creative and Design Agency: TBWA\Media Arts Lab
Production Company: Optical Arts
Director: Joe Jackson
Music: Fred again..
Music Collaborator: NEST Acoustics
VFX: Time Based Arts
Color & Finishing: Trafik
Music Mix: Model Citizen
Retouching (Stills): Optical Arts
Post-Production (Stills) + Color Conversion: Epilogue Inc
Type Design Consultation and Vector Logo Illustration + Reconstruction: Plau
