Official Music Charts
Relaunching a brand with an equal serving of Gen-Z POV and a source of nostalgia
Intro
Founded with the aim of offering insights into the music industry's trends and successes, the Official Charts are the UK’s only official, trusted weekly barometer of what’s popular in music right now. The Official Charts captures the pulse of music scenes, providing insights into songs, albums, and emerging talent. The Top 40 Official Singles Chart has been chronicling the tastes of arguably the most influential music nation on the planet for 70 years.
Challenge
The Official Charts approached us to build an identity that firmly places them as a confidently contemporary brand in the eyes of their primary audience – Gen Z (an audience who are notorious for spotting visuals that fall short of the mark). They were aiming for a youthful appeal to the brand but balanced with quality and trust without feeling corporate or outdated. Our goal was to take this brief and create a cohesive brand identity across all touchpoints—from the website and social channels to video content and playlists—eliminating current disjointedness. We aimed to build a brand that is culturally valuable and vital, reflecting relevance, imagination, and playfulness. With diverse offerings like vinyl charts, classical rundowns, and trending Afrobeats tracks, the new identity had to clearly showcase the depth and breadth the brand has.
Key Ideas & Insights
Enhancing a household brand to please the full range of audience
The Official Charts needs to adapt to the trends and the zeitgeist of its Gen-Z audience whilst staying one step ahead visually and still being memorable with its secondary, older audience. We kept the well-known arrows as part of the logo concept that hits the sweet spot between Gen-Z and nostalgia.
Using movement to create playful passes to the Gen-Z audience
Gen-Z is always ahead of the curve when it comes to visual aesthetics. They love dynamism and immersive experiences so we decided to utilise this insight when creating brand stickers for The Official Charts to give character and movement to everything they post.
Ensuring the brand is instantly recognisable across all touchpoints
When you have a brand that spans numerous media platforms, from TV screens to magazines, it must maintain consistent and coherent branding across every screen and print medium without question. We went above and beyond to ensure that the branding felt at home in every form and the current disjointedness was a thing of the past.
Clearer, sharper, bolder
Our redesigned logo is crisper but still has an iconic flavour to it. The text is bold and inviting, ensuring it performs exceptionally in any scenario it's placed in. We decided on a geometric Sans typeface that brings weight and an approachable look and feel to enforce the quality and trustworthiness of the brand. For the colour palette we went with bright, digital colours for a digital first brand to grab attention confidently and consistently. The logo edges have been sharpened and rotated to match their icon award creating a cohesion between the online and offline branding.
A window into the charts
We developed an underlying concept where the two arrows come together to offer up a window into the charts. The two arrows converge to form a window into the charts. This symbolic window serves not just as a graphical element but as a portal to the musical zeitgeist. It encapsulates the pulse of UK culture, reflecting its ever-evolving tastes, trends, and artistic expressions. The reimagined logo stands as a beacon of modernity and tradition transcending the heritage of the Official Charts whilst propelling it into the future.
