Collins’ rebrand of Bose leaves the original 1960s wordmark (mostly) untouched

When it came it rebranding the audio company Bose, the team at Collins found that it wasn’t just its visual world that needed updating. “It was in need of a renewed story, and that story is what needed a new visual expression,” Brian Collins tells It’s Nice That. “For decades, they’ve pioneered breakthrough acoustic products that would make any engineer swoon,” design director Zuzanna Rogatty explains, with an internationally renowned range of products that encompass speakers, audio glasses, headphones, hearing aids, audio glasses, noise-cancelling and so on. 

This vast range of products, and how the brand is constantly examining how the future is changing, needed to be put front and centre. “Sound is what they do, and that focus really allows them to grasp the nuances of what people are now looking for,” senior strategy director Allison Solomson says. “Their expertise is grounded in a rare understanding of how people feel and relate to products that help them connect to the power of sound.”

With that in mind, Collins introduced Bose’s new strategic perspective, ‘Sound is Power’, encapsulating its character and the brand’s focus on the future and its dedication to innovation. Whilst trying to maintain Bose’s almost 60-year reputation, Collins knew they needed to evolve what the brand had cultivated in order to bring in new audiences. Working in collaboration with Warsaw-based, independent type foundry, Tekio, as well as in-house creatives, the team developed a slick, sonic-inspired typeface and bespoke wordmark that leads the visual identity forward. 

“To protect its equity, its integrity, and at the same time enable a new level of expression, we left the central logo untouched,” says creative director Tomas Markevičius. The only part of the 1960s, hand-drawn wordmark that they changed was the bars at the ‘B’s base and the top of the ‘E’. “We leaned into those bars as a foundational shape for all the expandable forms of the new identity,” he adds. This decision allowed the wordmark to expand to the full extent of the application. 

From there, Collins used the wordmark’s italic letterforms as the basis of the brand typeface. “It felt natural to Bose, and yet had a new capacity to flex across new contexts and environments that a global brand now demands,” Zuzanna says. The team then went on to develop a broad colour palette based on eight core chromatic tones. “Each represents a note in a musical scale, and expands into a matrix of options capable of serving future products, partnerships and communications,” she adds. This avenue intensifies the brand’s approach to colour, having previously been much more subdued. “The new identity is grounded in many new motion behaviours and a confident language that can now, we hope, really help visualise the immersive power of sound Bose creates,” Tomas ends.