Apple has just unveiled a new brand identity for Apple Music, with the expected shift towards Liquid Glass. I’m not really a fan of their new design language in general; This is where I admit that I still use MacOS Sequoia and have some grumpy things to say about rounded corner radii and text readability.
It’s just a trend, it will pass, and at some point I will probably give in and upgrade when it starts to affect my ability to work or, more importantly, get security updates. Once I adapt, I will stop noticing it and life will go on.
As such, I wouldn’t normally find a rebranding like this obvious, let alone feel like I have much to say about it. But then I happened to watch Apple’s behind-the-scenes video in my YouTube recommendations and realized I had some ideas.
It’s a short, time-friendly clip, just over a minute long if you want to watch for yourself.
Let’s get the obvious part out of the way: This is Apple’s pinnacle. More than a little pretentious, with all the resources a $5 trillion market cap can bring to solve every problem.
There’s a design agency (TBWA/Media Arts Lab), a successful pop music producer (Fred again…and yes, that’s how you spell it), a set complete with cameras and lighting, and a mineral oil tank equipped with a transducer to efficiently transmit audio signals in physical ripples.
They filmed a ton of footage of the oil (chosen for its higher viscosity) interacting with the branding printed on transparent panels. Fast Company has a detailed breakdown of the technical aspects if you want to learn more.
Gn tech
