Modern brands understand the importance of sound to their identity. Sonic branding has been on the rise ever since technology started shaping our modern world and the way we interact with various companies in our daily lives.
In April 2022, West One Music Group began the initiative to create a 4-5 second sonic identity to accompany our newly animated logo that was to be used in marketing videos during trade/sponsorship events, online and in any advertising campaigns.
We wanted sonic branding that best reflected our company values: smart, captivating, and brave; centered around seamlessness, efficiency, engagement, collaboration, diversity, innovation, imagination and pushing boundaries. Our videos feature music from around the world in every genre, so we were also looking for audio branding that was musically genre-less, not too melodic, with a human and organic feel.
We commissioned long-time collaborator and composer, James Wilson, who has scored music for brands such as Adidas, Nike, Disney, Uber, Discovery Channel, Rapha, H&M, Sky Sports and Rolls Royce.
Based on the first round of five demos (V1-V5), we decided as a team that we favored the percussive playfulness of V4, but still felt as if the versions were all too dark sounding. We indicated in our first round of feedback that we would like the sound to be brighter, even more percussive and upbeat, to reflect the colors of our branding and the overall vibrancy of our global music, team and client base.
We then reviewed a revision of V4 (V4.1) with more percussion and brighter melodic elements. As a team, we agreed that it felt more positive, but that the percussive elements could be refined and dialed back.
We reviewed three revisions from James on V4.1 (V4.2, V4.3, V4.4). While we did appreciate the stripped back percussion in each of these variations, we felt as if we needed to evoke what West One Music is all about – the music. We found the need for the logo to be a bit more musical, not just percussive, and not too exact to the animation, as we still wanted the logo to feel natural and organic.
Three revisions later (V6, 6.1 & 6.2), we agreed that V7 best reflected our needs and company values in its seamlessness, subtle but effervescent musicality and overall human feel with the addition of organic percussion and hand claps.
THE WINNER!
We felt that the overall sonic punchiness and percussiveness of V7 promoted our virtues of fun and youthfulness. We also felt that the sound design-oriented approach illustrated the genre-lessness that drives our growing ethos of global musical inclusion, and that the use of organic elements, such as finger clicks add that human element that binds the entire business.
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