Apple just revealed a new brand identity for Apple Music, with the long-awaited pivot to Liquid Glass. I’m not a big fan of their new design language in general; This is where I admit that I’m still running MacOS Sequoia and have grumpy things to say about rounded corner radii and text readability.
It’s just a trend, it will pass and at some point I’ll probably give in and update when it starts to impact my ability to get work done or more importantly get security updates. Once I adjust, I will stop noticing it and life will go on.
As such, I wouldn’t normally find an obvious rebrand like this notable, much less feel like I have much to say about it. But then I saw Apple’s behind-the-scenes video in my YouTube recommendations and realized I had some ideas.
It’s a short clip, which respects your time, being just over a minute long if you want to see it for yourself.
Let’s get the obvious part out of the way: it’s a pretty good Apple. More than a little pretentious, with all the resources that a $5 trillion market cap can bring to solve every problem.
There’s a design agency (TBWA/Media Arts Lab), a pop hit 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 effectively transmit audio signals over physical waves.
They filmed a bunch of footage of the oil (chosen for its higher viscosity) interacting with the brand printed on transparent panels. Fast Company has a detailed breakdown of the technical aspects if you want to dig deeper.
