Kurppa Hosk rebrands Google’s music production platform Soundation

Kurppa Hosk has developed a new identity for online music production service Soundation. Launched ten years ago, the platform allows musicians and producers to record music, build tracks from its sound library and share the results amongst a wider community. The rebrand coincides with the launch of the new browser-based studio, built in collaboration with Google.

A key part of Kurppa Hosk’s brief was to develop an identity that spoke to the platform’s “young and creative” audience, motivating them to “follow through on their passions”, says the New York and Stockholm-based design studio on its website. Kurppa Hosk worked with Soundation to analyse how producers used the platform, in order to declutter the User Interface (UI), based on the most popular tools.

The new logo comprises of an “s” formed from two stacked polygons. These shapes were designed to remain recognisable when separated and occur across the identity on the platform, business cards and stationery, posters and merchandise. The 45 degree angle of the blocks has been used as a graphic a device throughout the refresh and in the platform itself.

Kurppa Hosk selected OpenType’s Suisse, a neo-grotesque sans serif typeface designed by Ian Party, and a colour palette of orange, lilac, Klein blue, warm yellow and apple green. “The strict geometry and typography became a perfect fit for an app that demands precision and clarity,” the studio continues. “With input from users, the design went through a large amount of iterations in terms of colour scheme and iconography in order to reach a UI suitable for all user segments.”