FM
MUSIC | 2023
A brand identity rooted in Manchester's musical DNA.
Introduction
I grew up going to gigs in Manchester. Music here isn't background, it's infrastructure, community, something that gets passed down. When James approached me to build the identity for FM Audio and Sound Production, it felt less like a brief and more like an opportunity to put something back into a city that had given me a lot.
I grew up going to gigs in Manchester. Music here isn't background, it's infrastructure, community, something that gets passed down. When James approached me to build the identity for FM Audio and Sound Production, it felt less like a brief and more like an opportunity to put something back into a city that had given me a lot.
Services
Bespoke Logotype
Brand Identity and Direction
Printed Ephemera
Bespoke Logotype
Brand Identity and Direction
Printed Ephemera
The Challenge
The challenge was honouring a genuinely rich legacy, Factory Records, the Hacienda, a city that had built an entire aesthetic around the relationship between sound and image, without being nostalgic about it. James' work spans genres and contexts. The identity needed to hold that range without becoming generic.
The Soltuion
FM radio waves became the visual foundation, but not as a literal illustration, as a starting point for mark-making. Motifs were created with ink, vectorised, and translated into 3D motion graphics, giving the system energy and physicality. A custom monogram anchors the identity, while bespoke gradients allow the palette to shift across genres without losing coherence. The result is a system that feels genuinely of Manchester, specific, adaptable, and built to move.
The challenge was honouring a genuinely rich legacy, Factory Records, the Hacienda, a city that had built an entire aesthetic around the relationship between sound and image, without being nostalgic about it. James' work spans genres and contexts. The identity needed to hold that range without becoming generic.
The Soltuion
FM radio waves became the visual foundation, but not as a literal illustration, as a starting point for mark-making. Motifs were created with ink, vectorised, and translated into 3D motion graphics, giving the system energy and physicality. A custom monogram anchors the identity, while bespoke gradients allow the palette to shift across genres without losing coherence. The result is a system that feels genuinely of Manchester, specific, adaptable, and built to move.
