Responses by James Taylor, global head of design, TBWA\Media Arts Lab.
Background: The project set out to give Apple Music a distinctive identity with music at its heart. It needed to connect with a broad global audience of listeners, while reflecting the creativity of the artists behind the music. Our idea was “made by sound”: an identity physically shaped by music with a direct relationship between what you hear and what you see. That principle brought together the brand’s visual and sonic expression, giving Apple Music a recognizable presence wherever people encounter it.
Design thinking: We started with a simple question: Could music physically create the identity for Apple Music? That felt like a strong foundation for a brand whose entire purpose revolves around music and artists.
We explored how sound could move liquid, using a custom rig and software to control a transducer. Through months of experimentation with composition, vibration, light and camera, we developed a way for music to shape the mark in-camera. The same composition became the sonic identity, so the sound and image are intrinsically connected.
The thinking comes from brand identity: find one clear, ownable idea, then carry it through with exceptional craft. There’s a complex process behind it, but the experience should feel immediate.
Challenges: Getting the sound and image to work equally well. A composition could create a beautiful liquid form without feeling right musically or sound wonderful without producing the movement we needed. That meant continually working between musical composition and physical experimentation. Small changes in frequency, the liquid or the lighting could have a significant effect on the result.
Just as important was the persistence of the wider team. There were plenty of moments when the idea could have been written off as too difficult. People kept pushing, testing and protecting the original ambition until we found a way to make it work.
Favorite details: The connection between the sound and the movement. The music you hear physically created the motion you see. That gives even a very short encounter with the identity a depth that comes from how it was made.
New lessons: We learned a great deal about the relationship between sound and physical form, particularly how small musical changes could transform the behavior of the liquid. The process became a conversation between what we wanted to create and what the material would allow.
It also reinforced the value of committing to an idea before you know exactly how to realize it. We had a clear creative premise, but finding the method required experimentation and a team willing to keep going through the unsuccessful attempts. Some of the most interesting results came from paying attention to things we hadn’t planned.
Visual influences: The optical qualities of glass and liquid were an important reference—how they refract light, carry color and change our perception of a familiar shape. Those qualities also created a natural connection with Apple’s Liquid Glass design language.
But the strongest influence was the behavior of the material itself. We spent a lot of time observing what happened when sound passed through the liquid, looking for moments that felt expressive while preserving the clarity of the mark. The visual language emerged through that process of making and observing.
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