Virgin Radio International Identity

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Virgin Radio International is the world’s largest radio station group, made up of fourteen radio stations scattered across the globe. Capturing their move from just ‘broadcasting out’ to listeners, to ‘inviting conversations in’, their brand’s promise is: “Always Listening Out for You”. How do we visualize an ever-evolving radio station that tailors their broadcasting content based on the input of their listeners?

Cymatics is the input of certain sound frequencies to a specially designed plate/diaphragm which contains either salt or water, causes vibrations which results in various unique patterns. Specific frequencies creates specific patterns - each one totally unique.

The terms ‘sound’ and ‘frequency’ goes hand-in-hand with radio, so the method for creating the identity naturally seemed fitting. But the actual process of Cymatics became a strong visual analogy of the brand essence.

We used the star from the logo as our starting point and recorded dozens of cymatic experiments – testing to see how different sound frequency inputs would affect the star shape.

Original black and white cymatic imagery is used on the Mother-brand Identity whilst each Virgin Radio station’s identity is a unique graphic interpretation of the original cymatics footage. Patterns are amplified by a secondary colour palette - which is inspired by the relevant station’s particular country’s national flag.

The interactive website is where each station’s unique cymatic pattern comes to life. The shape and colours of the patterns respond dynamically to the user’s mouse movements. These patterns are amplified with sounds pertinent to each region to enhance the user experience.