What sound looks like

What Brand refresh, communication

Where DR

How Motion design, design guide

 

DR Lyd is one of the country’s top apps for radio and podcasts, due to the strength of its original content. But while content almost exclusively reaches the user digitally, many of the brand assets were created for static formats. The logo consists of the letters ‘lyd’ in the shape of sound bars, with an animated establishment and sound ident. But the same digital-first approach was lacking in templates for socials, ads and banners – where this fifth element ended up as static, abstract forms.

 

 

 

 

After creating a new master animation for the audio spectrum, in which the behaviour of the bars was more natural (amplitude, frequency and padding), we create a set of specs to make sure they would always be recognised as coming from the logo. The main element is an animation with a cover at the centre and bars on either side. This already existed, but it didn’t feel quite right, and was not connected to the logo.

Since the main communication created by marketing is trailers and ads for specific shows. This faux player is the main element and was produced in many variations (loopable, long/short, with/without logo, with/without CTA, for bundles etc.). We also created a design guide that explains layout, colour selection from cover images, CTA lengths, static versions and so on.

The player was then adapted into a smaller player, which includes the title of the show. This one is for moving formats on socials, where it was often unclear which show the content was about, unless you read the full caption below. The small player is also a response to how Spotify, Deezer and others create shareable links that are integrated with Meta and other platforms. This visual sharing function is currently in development for the app.

The small player is built into the Premiere workflow editors at DR use to create reels and stories for socials. The element can be placed, sized and coloured to the editor’s preference and a CTA added. This makes the workflow faster and ensures a streamlined look across production units and radio channels. More importantly, it establishes the name and cover art of the show within the first few seconds of watching a piece of content from DR Lyd.

To further strengthen the idea of the fifth element as a visualisation of sound, we created standard settings for the AE audio spectrum effect. Now it can easily be added into content that with voiceovers, to create movement in formats that are otherwise static. This can also be used across other DR brands, wherever this effect is implemented, to create better brand recognition.

For display ads, the cover animation can be used when it’s directly related to specific content. For branded campaigns, the fifth element can be used on its own, in more creative ways. It can also be used for static formats where animation or video is not possible. For these specific use cases (including print) we created a supergraphic version of the sound bars, to be used in negative or positive. This came in handy e.g. for youtube thumbnail templates.

As a further exploration we looked at how the fifth element can be leveraged in video content, as more and more DR Lyd podcasts are also published in video formats and marketed through reels. Here, and in trailers it can be used for transitions, to strengthen branding where there are no content-driven brand cues.