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Anthony Perrault
03 · Brand identity · Self-directed

Aurality

One “A”, two readings: a microphone, and a finger pressing record.

A self-initiated brand identity for an audio-technology company: one letterform carries a microphone, a record gesture, and the audio input stem.

BRANDING2024SELF-DIRECTEDILLUSTRATOR + PHOTOSHOP14 ARTIFACTS
The identity in motionthe product site, on a laptop
02The commission

What the brief asked

The Aurality DAC and headphone amplifier seen top-down on a dark graphite gradient: BAL, headphone-jack, BASS and GAIN toggles, a brushed-metal volume dial wearing the red ‘A’ mark, and the AURALITY lockup.
The Aurality DAC and headphone amplifier

Aurality is a self-initiated showcase: a brand identity for an audio-technology company that builds high-end hardware with AI-powered noise cancellation. The brief I set had one constraint: premium hardware that reads that way at a glance, for tech-savvy listeners aged 30–45 and the audiophiles, musicians, and producers behind them. I answered with one letterform and the full system built from it.

Design intent

Design the mark so a stranger reads “record this sound” without being told.

Role
Brand identity & motion
Tools
Illustrator · Photoshop · After Effects
Timeline
2024 · self-directed
Deliverables
Identity · 6-step logo system · 8 brand slides · packaging
OneMark
One letterform carries the whole identity, across 14 artifacts.
TwoReadings
The crossbar reads as a microphone and a finger pressing record.
8Brand slides
Palette, two type families, and a voice, spec’d page by page.
03Building the mark

How I built the mark

The exploration started as a cube of stacked audio gear. A corner read as a slanted “A,” and six steps resolved it into the final letter.

The Aurality logomark construction sheet: six build-step thumbnails in gray with green circle and diagonal guide overlays at left, resolving into the finished ‘A’ mark on a white-and-black split panel at right.
The six build steps, from the rough geometry to the finished mark
The six steps01 → 06
  1. 01Started as a geometric, cube-like form, an audio rack of stacked equipment.
  2. 02Spotted a corner that read as a slanted “A,” and chased it.
  3. 03Built a 2.5D letter that paired with the type; green outlines mark what changed.
  4. 04Rounded the corner. The sharp version felt cold and hard to approach.
  5. 05Dropped the gray ground, thinned the “A” stem, set a red circle as the crossbar.
  6. 06Smoothed the edge until the crossbar read as a microphone, and as a finger on record.
The dual readingtwo readings of the “A”
  1. 01Microphonethe crossbar, read as a mic capsule
  2. 02Finger on recordthe same crossbar, pressing the button
  3. 03Audio inputthe left stem, called out in red

The crossbar is a microphone and a finger on the record button. The left stem is the audio input, called out in red.

The resolved Aurality identity: the horizontal AURALITY wordmark with the red ‘Audio excellence.’ tagline at left, and the vertical stacked lockup (mark over AURALITY) at right.
Wordmark + stacked lockup · the mark and its tagline
The Aurality ‘A’ monogram shown twice: on a black ground as a white-and-red mark, and on a white ground as a black-and-red mark; the knockout and positive lockup pair.
The mark on a dark ground and a light ground
Movement B · The system

The system built from the mark: a palette, two type families, and a voice.

The Aurality color story: three full-bleed panels, black ‘Depth’ (hex 020000, Pantone 419 C), red ‘Resonance’ (hex C63527, Pantone 7626 C), and white ‘Clarity’ (hex FFFAFA), each with a quarter-inch audio jack and cable.
Depth, Resonance, Clarity, spec’d to hex and Pantone.
The Aurality heading-face specimen: Exo 2, a geometric sans, shown Regular, Medium, Semi-Bold and Bold with italics, beside a large ‘Aa’ specimen.
Exo 2 · the geometric heading face
The Aurality body-face specimen: Epilogue, a humanist variable sans, shown Regular through Bold with italics, beside a large ‘Aa’ specimen.
Epilogue · the humanist reading face
On the type pairing

Exo 2 for headlines, Epilogue for body text.

The Aurality ‘about’ slide: a black-and-white macro of a circuit board with the glowing ‘AURALITY PRO 8’ chip at left, and a red panel with a giant cropped ‘Ab’ and a company paragraph at right.
The company behind the mark: high-end audio hardware with AI-powered noise cancellation.
The Aurality personality slide: a values list resolving to Sophisticated, Immersive and Premium at left, an array of black AURALITY studio microphones at right, and large ‘Personality’ outline type.
The brand personality, as briefed: sophisticated, immersive, premium.
04Applied

The mark, applied

I applied the mark six ways: business card, tote, packaging, two ads, and a city shutter. The eight-slide deck sits below, page by page.

The full brand system, page by page.01 / 08
Aurality brand system, the ‘about’ slide: a circuit-board macro with the AURALITY PRO 8 chip beside a red company panel.
Brand-system deck
Page 1 of 8
An Aurality business card on a concrete surface in diagonal light: the stacked AURALITY lockup with ‘Jonathan Dougheu, Audio Engineer’, an email and a phone number.
The mark at hand-held scale.
A man in a gray sweater carrying a black Aurality canvas tote printed with the red-and-black ‘A’ mark, with ‘Audio excellence.’ set to the right.
“Audio excellence.” worn out of the studio.
Three black Aurality product boxes stacked on a red-and-black ground with dramatic rim light, each carrying the white AURALITY lockup and ‘Audio excellence.’
Three product boxes in Depth and Resonance.
A graffiti-framed roll-down storefront shutter papered with four Aurality posters (amp, hands-on-keyboard, mic grille and circuit work), each carrying the AURALITY lockup.
Four posters on a roll-down storefront shutter.
An Aurality ad: a chrome-and-black retro microphone entering from the right on a light-gray ground, with ‘Audio excellence.’ set center-left and the AURALITY lockup.
A chrome-and-black retro microphone on a light-gray ground.
An Aurality ad: open-back over-ear headphones with a carbon-fiber AURALITY headband on a light ground, with the ‘Audio excellence.’ caption and corner lockup.
Open-back over-ear headphones with a carbon-fiber AURALITY headband.
Key resultAurality · 03

One mark.Two readings.Fourteen artifacts, one system.

One mark. Two readings. Fourteen artifacts, one system.

05On the second reading

What it taught me

The rack concept failed; its corner held the final mark. The lesson I keep: draw the wrong thing long enough to find its right corner.

Next project

Worked at: Toptal, Cover Genius, Impact Trial Consulting, JPMorgan Chase; By proxy: Uber, Apple, Meta, SAP, Palo Alto Networks, Lyft, CrowdStrike, United Airlines, Grammarly, Booking.com, Sony, Monotype, Dragos, Sonatype, NoName Security, University of Miami.