WE GET MUSIC.

As the world's digital library, Google stresses the importance of contextual knowledge within today's music. The challenge: how to make GPM's vast variety of content (each with its own hyper-individualized style) feel a part of one brand. For their social rebrand, our solution was to create a living language driven by vibrant color, centralized illustration, and clever micro-animations that illustrate the energy music brings.

We created guidelines for addressing many different content buckets: from playlists to album anniversaries to sports events. As part of a larger activation, we also interviewed and attended performances of featured artists to give viewers the "inside scoop" on their favorite artists.  With these tools, we united Google Play Music under one social umbrella.

MEDIA  Social / Visual Identity
ROLE  Creative Direction
AGENCY  Translation

COLOR

The color palette pulls a diverse range of hues inspired by Google assets and branding. The broad set of colors ranges from pastels to brights and allows for flexibility per use case. Colors are separated into Heroes, Accents, and Pastels and are used in an established ratio with pure white as the foundation.

ILLUSTRATION

For illustration, we use flat graphics with a hint of dimensionality to demonstrate interpretations of music, reactions to current events, and concepts behind playlists. Illustration is always centralized within the frame and takes from the established color palette.

TREATING ALBUM ARTWORK

We address album artwork in three ways depending on the large variation of opportunity presented by the cover art. Each is a clever play on the album’s context expressed either in the GPM frame or on the album itself. We use illustrative, photographic, or pattern treatment to tell the story of the album.

INTERVIEWS AND LIVE STREAMING

We partnered with artists and influencers to tell insider stories about the artist and their music. Content pieces include interviews and backstage sessions with Nas, Bob Powers, Migos, Kehlani, and many more.

SOCIAL FOLLOWING - Tripled.

What started as a reposting of artist albums became an integrated system of visuals that both drew in a new and younger audience while maintaining the Google brand. The end result: we were able to escalate GPM from 65k followers to 242k followers. 

Check out the live visuals on the GPM Instagram: Google Play Music