IBM

IBM has been transforming business and culture through technology and innovation since the early 1900s. Today, IBM is synonymous with advancement, boasting a multifaceted suite of products and services, from business consulting to cloud technology and AI.

Drawing upon both IBM's rich history and its future-forward ethos, Antfood collaborated closely with IBM's Blue Studio to define IBM's Sonic Brand with the following key objectives:

Project IBM as One IBM, with a unified sonic identity for the whole company, bringing cohesion to the brand across all touchpoints.

Imbue the brand with personality and focus through a confident sonic language.

We examined IBM's history and current culture for concepts that could inspire our sound, and the idea of continued progress and improvement kept reappearing—from IBM's anthem of the 1930s, "Ever Onward," to their current Garage Methodology.

Through our Discovery and Strategy phases, we defined IBM's sonic personality as:

• Human
• Forward-Thinking
• Authoritative
• Transformative
• Thoughtful

IBM's sonic mnemonic features an accelerando played on a woodwind octet with synthesizers. The accelerando speaks to constant progress and advancement – inspired by IBM's ethos of "accelerating together with our clients”. With the performance of a woodwind octet alongside synthesizers, we mirrored IBM’s symbiosis between human ingenuity and technical innovation. And why an octet? IBM's logo is known as their "8 Bar" logo, so groups of 8 have special meaning for the brand.

Building upon IBM's visual system, we mirrored their iconic 8-Bar and Rebus logos through sound. Our melody outlines the three letters in IBM, and the most astute listeners may be able to find the IBM 8-bar logo hidden in the piano roll notation and spectrogram for our mnemonic.

Using our mnemonic and defined sonic personality as the foundation, we expanded IBM's sonic brand into a musical style and library of branded music. The themes of IBM's branded music flex from understated and analytical to driving and anthemic.

Our music cues were inspired by the work of Paul Rand, who designed IBM's 8-bar logo. Its clean, grid-like lines informed pulsing momentum within the music. Through a tasteful collage of sound sources—from woodwinds, to hand played percussion, and analogue synthesis — Antfood crafted a tone that is forward-thinking and thoughtful, while maintaining confidence, always with a human touch.

By equipping IBM with a sonic toolkit with robust variations and guidelines, Antfood has enabled the company to ensure the on-brand application of its sonic brand into the future. As IBM moves forward as a unified brand, its sonic identity will ensure the brand's innovative character comes through across marketing, franchises, events, and more, evoking progress and ingenuity wherever the brand shows up.