The project was run as a meeting of many minds, with co-working sprints and workshops involving both teams. As work developed, we shared design routes in interactive ‘poster galleries’, letting the Mixcloud team live with the new concepts around the office. This overcame the snow-blindness that can hit when new work is presented, and gave the team a real sense of ownership over the new brand.
Building on Mixcloud’s own work, we translated abstract strategy into an authentic character and proposition, to guide how the brand should look, sound and feel. Through exploration and workshops, we found the key to clear space in the market – the emotional connection Mixcloud nurtures between a creator and their audience.
This thinking led us to the central creative idea – the connector. It amplifies key words, connects genres, people and locations. Its scale and rhythm varies dependent on mood. Sometimes calm. Often frenetic. Always moving and bursting with energy.
Extending the connector idea, the bespoke typeface we produced with Pangram Pangram is a vital brand component. Its role is both emotive and practical. With a mass of user-generated imagery, a customisable font pulls everything together with a sense of ownership. Ligatures can join pairs of characters, or become much more playful to show the brand’s exuberance.
To truly test the work and show its potential, we explored different ways of using connection to root discovery into the heart of the product. We looked at how far things might go, from a simple reskin of the product to using the connector to guide user experience in different ways for Mixcloud’s player, discover tool and website.
The brand leaps into the world on social and gets physical in a collection of merchandise, clothing and stickers. Here, the iconic typography really comes into its own as Mixcloud can ‘own’ genres without relying too heavily on the logo.
In developing a new paid subscription model, Mixcloud is helping audiences to get closer to the creators. We extended the new identity into a look & feel for Mixcloud Select, with raw imagery, refined colours, a hand-drawn typeface and looser use of illustrative elements.