Responses by Thomas Kurppa, creative direction and Zoey Tsopela, communications manager, Kurppa Hosk
Background: Soundation was created to offer a powerful and high-quality online music production service to new producers. Nearly a decade later, following a more enhanced experience, the service is seeing an ever-growing demographic of young and ambitious producers. Subsequently, Soundation teamed up with us for a visual identity that speaks to the young and creative target group, and most importantly, motivates them to follow through with their passion.
Reasoning: Our thoughts were to design an experience that communicates the brand’s ambitions: to facilitate musical creativity around the world. The design overhaul showcases a visual language that is consistent across all channels and touchpoints. Two interconnected rectangles in 45-degree angles signal precision and can be used separately throughout the identity.
Challenges: Soundation has been around for almost a decade and is now under a new management that has introduced an array of advanced features to more than threefold the amount of users since it first started. So, the challenge was to design an identity to strongly reflect this maturity, without being confined to the category.
Favorite details: We think that having a very happy client at the end of the process is quite rewarding. We are proud to have had the opportunity to design an identity and experience without any compromises and take it as far as we could. This freedom, of course, comes with an array of challenges. Nevertheless, the end result has been, in more than one way, gratifying.
Visual influences: A lot of what we do is very much influenced and inspired by science and geometry. In this case, for Soundation, two 45-degree interconnected rectangles were used to develop the entire visual identity. This mathematical approach signals both precision and refinement.
Specific demands: Our challenges were in no way different than what any other agency faces. Moreover, creating a flexible and exciting identity that not only worked well for both product and web, but also fit with the target group, presented itself with some challenges. However, with Soundation, we had the rare privilege of working with a dream client: underground music production. The project was perfect for us because of our passion for music. This fuelled our work and made the process much easier.