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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

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.

Deliverable inventory14 artifacts
01Discipline
Brand identity
02Tools
Adobe Illustrator (concept), Adobe Photoshop (mockups)
03Identity
Logomark, wordmark, dark / light lockups
04System
Palette, two type families, voice & personality
05Mockups
Business card, tote, packaging
06Advertising
Headphones, microphone
07In the wild
Storefront posters

14 artifacts in total, from the logo system to the packaging, posters, and street application. The matrix lists them by category.

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

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

Design intent
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

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 exhibit

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.