The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame rebrand is programmed to react to sound

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Rock Hall) has received a new brand courtesy of Base Design, a studio whose recent work includes a charming animated system for The New York Times’ 2022 Food Festival. The project for Rock Hall also leverages motion; it includes a custom typeface, called Generation, and logo which is designed to move according to audio cues. The new brand appears to reverberate depending on the sounds and beats that it encounters.

According to a Base Design press release, “The Rock & Roll spirit” is central to the redesign, aiming to be “daring” and “powerful” in execution. This approach can be felt best when the Generation typeface is at its most expressive – readers can see some of its capabilities in the video below. Base adds that the bold spirit of Hall of Fame artists, shown “through their sound, imagery and stories”, is now delivered “through Rock Hall’s visuals and content”, unified by an Acid House palette.

The Base release states: “Similarly to music’s ever-evolving zeitgeist, the Rock Hall team realised it was time to update its image to ensure the institution remains relevant, by broadening its audience to include younger generations, and staying in the spotlight year-round beyond the induction ceremony.”

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is a museum and hall of fame in Cleveland, Ohio, though it is perhaps best known for its annual Induction Ceremony in which it celebrates the next set of artists brought into the Hall. As of the last Induction Ceremony in November 2022, Rock Hall’s list of inductees stood at 365 artists – the new logo and identity debuted at the event. An ongoing issue this music award season is representation; it remains a pressing topic for The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which has recently received backlash for its lack of representation of female artists.