X5 is a music company based in Sweden and the USA. Since their inception in 2005, they’ve been specialized in the digital music download market. Their portfolio currently contains 400,000 recordings and over 11,000 digital albums in a wide range of genres.
X5 Music Group, partnered with the the global music leader Universal Music Group to launch a first-of-its kind partnership to produce digital compilation albums under the name U5.
Check out this promising relationship on the digital music market in Ben Sisario’s article in The New York Times. Indeed, U5 will give X5 access to at least 50,000 of Universal’s classical tracks, and another 50,000 jazz and blues songs from world famous Record labels Blue Note, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon and Verve catalogs, which Universal owns. Their mission is to take X5′s expertise in the digital market and apply it to Universal Music’s world leading high quality catalogue.
To kick off the new U5 label, X5 commissioned Avivo to design a fresh brand identity that would clearly articulate that they’re trustworthy, playful, innovative, and sophisticated. Their identity needs to say that U5 is about contemporary products with an innovative and unique feel.
CHALLENGE
X5 wanted a visual brand identity of the U5 to assure consumers and business partners and to give an impression that the label is innovative, rapid, contemporary and exciting. Talking extensively with X5, we learned that their new label is to be soon associated with pioneering ideas and top of the line products.
U5 is a fresh label that targets a broad mainstream audience that is looking for premium products. U5 creates new kinds of theme products that make it easier for customers to find their favourite music; their visual brand identity thus must convey that they’re indeed innovative.
X5 music is fully focused on the digital market. They can curate and release an album in just a couple of days and made them available around the world through all digital platforms; this is made possible by U5′s end-to-end in-house system compared to major labels that usually need 2-3 months to do the same thing. The first U5 releases includes the new “50 Greatest” series “The 50 Greatest Violin Pieces” by Joshua Bell, “The 50 Greatest Violin Pieces” by Joshua Bell, “The 50 Greatest Piano Pieces” by Lang Lang and “The 50 Greatest Performances of Classical Music” compilation.
“We think digital from scratch while the older companies still make CD format albums that they convert into digital. Our distribution goes from one place to the rest of the world – other labels distribute albums locally.”
X5 Music Group
3 MAIN FEATURES OF THE LOGO
Based on comprehensive briefing, Avivo worked extensively on creating the new label’s visual brand identity, focusing on a logo.
STYLE
U5 visual brand identity, including logo, is contemporary and stylish. It has clean lines that are well visible in any size. During briefings X5′s wish was that new logo wouldn’t had too many details that would get lost in translation.
COLORS
As their first category is Classical music and as U5 stands for top of the line products, the preferred color we agreed on was yellow. This color is synonymous with high quality in the field of classical music. Yellow is also very trendy and timeless as well as light when seen from afar.
PATTERN
Patterns and logo share the same DNA. Patters were developed out of logo’s characteristics.
The logo’s focus is “U5″. The label is called this due to their partnership with Universal Music Group. U5 in the logo is created to look like US. It is clear that the patterns imply that the label is in a constant motion forward; they’re focused on the digital only, which sets them apart from other record labels.
While creating a brand identity for U5, we followed the arguments by Juliana Davis, who wrote for this blog that
“Young companies often try to target the entire universe in the creation and proliferation of their brands, rather
than trying to focus on a niche market.”
We did the latter and the client favour U5 new visual identity. We, Avivo, once again earned trust of our client and are very proud being a part of the launch of U5, a new unique and promising global digital music label.
