Making connections through sound
A brand for the home of audio culture
After ten years of growth in a congested market, audio streaming platform Mixcloud was evolving to connect audiences more closely to the audio creators and cultures. We came onboard to translate a new commercial strategy into a brand identity to propel them through the next decade. How could we get more fans directly supporting the creators and cultures they care about?
Visit Mixcloud“As Mixcloud moves from being a pureplay tech platform towards being more of a destination media service, the role of brand becomes increasingly important.”
Stakeholder interview
We translated Mixcloud’s spirit and approach into an authentic character and proposition, to guide how the brand should look, sound and feel. Through exploration and workshops, we discovered the key to clear space in the market — the emotional connection Mixcloud nurtures between a creator and their audience.
The connector is core to the design language, bringing that emotional connection with sound to life. 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.
In the spirit of brave connections, we evolved the Mixcloud blue, with supporting colours that throw up some unexpected pairings. They shouldn’t work, but they do, with each one carefully selected to harmonise with two others. Imagery combines with colour to represent different communities, cultures and sounds alongside genres and moods.
To really 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, to finding different ways the connector could guide user experience for Mixcloud’s player, discover tool and website.
“Output’s collaborative approach has ensured we’re building a brand that represents the diverse community of audio culture. Subscriptions are growing, and the overall proposition is looking and feeling much stronger.”
Nikhil Shah
Co-founder, Mixcloud
