Spin’s new identity for Sounds Like These features sound bites and raw, textured handwriting

When Spin, the London-based design studio, were briefed with the identity for an audio service, it took the focus of the company into the heart of the digital identity. Spin therefore developed an “emotive and dynamic identity that expresses sound and reflects the breadth of Sounds Like These’s output,” says the design team.

Sounds Like These offers music composition, sound design and audio post-production services. Its clients include Nike, TikTok, Netflix and Google. As well as its commercial work, Sounds Like These runs Beat Club – a community-based jam session for music producers.

The design team at Spin began the brief “by building a rigorous typographic framework that provides graphic structure.” The designers believe this allowed for a more anarchic, textural and expressive layer to be woven into the visual elements. The typeface is organically scribbly and evidently focused on the joy within imperfect creativity.

“Faced with the challenge of giving a very audible company a visual appearance,” says Jonas Zieher, the project’s design director, “we wanted to move as far away from any corporate behaviour as we could.” The team therefore experimented with “raw gestural marks” that represent sound in direct and intuitive ways. This effectively is the expressive nature of elements we now see on the website and throughout the visual identity such as paint splatters and markings.

The website now playfully features a range of animated graphic interruptions, a fresh new colour palette and a number of interactive elements. These all work in harmony to create what Spin hopes is a brand identity that reflects the true nature of the company and doesn’t drag an audience into an overwhelming corporate atmosphere.