Apple Music's New Logo Was Made by Sound Moving Through Oil
Apple has unveiled the first rebrand of Apple Music since the streaming service launched in 2015. The new logo was not drawn on a screen. It was made by passing sound through a pool of oil.
The project was a collaboration with Fred Again, the British producer. He created the musical frequencies used for the logo together with NEST Acoustics, a sound company. Dezeen reported that a transducer, a device that turns electrical signals into physical vibration, turned those frequencies into movement. That movement pushed the oil into the wave-like pattern now seen on the logo.
The setup was simple. A piece of plastic cut in the shape of the Apple Music app icon sat in a shallow dish of mineral oil, a clear, non-greasy oil used in labs and workshops. The sound moved the oil over the plastic, and the pattern that formed became the base for the design.
The lettering is a custom version of Apple's SF Pro typeface, the font family the company uses across its products. Every letter is lowercase and set in bold. The lowercase "m" in "music" sits next to the Apple icon. Apple also introduced a new musical note icon alongside the logo.
The new identity is black and white. Ad Age reported that it also includes a "Liquid Glass" design, a name for the glossy, see-through look Apple uses in its newer software.
Apple shared the new identity on X and Instagram. Creative Boom quoted the company describing the identity as "physically shaped by an original composition" by Fred Again and NEST Acoustics.
For people who open Apple Music on a phone or computer, the change is the first visible update to the service's brand in more than ten years. The logo's look is the result of a sound being played, not just designed.
