Studio
Gray
Stefanie Grawe aka Gray is a
Cologne-based artist, designer and musician with a passion for graphic design, music production and audiovisual media.
Sound of TH Köln
Music Production and Audio Branding
Since changing its name from »Fachhochschule Köln« to »TH Köln«, the university got a new visual identity and added new key values. The new name defines a new kind of university with future-oriented educational concepts, strength in research and a strong strategic international focus. TH Köln emphasizes its academic plurality, interdisciplinarity and internationality. The main objective of TH Köln is social innovation. It also illustrates the regional approach and the institutional anchoring: as »universitas«, as a community of teachers and students.
In addition to the visual identity, TH Köln was also looking for auditory elements. I therefore produced an audio branding as part of a project at the Köln International School of Design. Audio Branding is all about establishing a sonic personality and identity for the brand. So how can we now create sounds in such a way that these images and these ideas are clear without even seeing them?
It is all about associations. There are some emotional classifications. For example positive or negative valences or arousals.
Which of these emotions do i have to track? In this case the key is a positive mood because there are already a lot of positive attributes named.
The first step was to create an audio logo that is no longer than 3-5 seconds with a simple melody based on four tones that is linked to the four elements of the word mark of TH Köln. The three perspectives – Technology, Arts and Sciences – that lead to the fundament TH Köln. It is composed with major chords because in contrast to minor it is a more positive chord that reaches a wider audience. The tones are composed with clean warm and smooth pad sounds which are timeless, recognizable and enjoyable for everyone and shouldn’t disturb by listening to it for a longer time.
There are some tone-variations that fit to the main melody to make the song fuller.
The complexity of harmonies stand for the diverse values of TH Köln like the plurality, interdisciplinarity or internationality. Also for the idea of „universitas“ – that the teachers and students share the academic environment and community. The university is very future-oriented. So i put some reverb on the tones to expand the dimension of sound and consequential also the forward movement of the TH Köln.
Based on the melody of the audio logo I also composed music for corporate events that could be used as a soundscape for telephone waiting loops and a video opener for lectures.
Jingle / Audio Logo
Soundscape
Music for a video opener
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