DMY
Chris Chapman
6 Jan 2023
DMY
DUMMY was an evolving online and IRL platform that has been discovering and supporting visionary music artists from across the globe for decades. DUMMY inspired the founding of DMY Artists, a record label, apparel range and live events brand that provides fair artist-friendly distribution and publishing for independent artists; And this in turn led to the creation of Do Music Yourself, a self-publishing platform for the wider music creator community.
There was a need to clarify the relationship between these separate offerings under a unified DMY brand. DMY needed consistent branding that was reflective of all aspects of what the brand does.
The music of the artists we love is always better when it’s as loud as possible. And this idea of increasing volume is at the heart of our visual identity. We have visualised full volume by expanding the letterforms in the DMY logo to the edge of legibility — as loud as it will go. By adding visual volume to graphics it can show a ‘dialling up’ from ‘normal’ to ‘full volume’. This is an expressive behaviour we can use to create responsive interactions that convey the energy DMY has for artists and their music. The solid ‘high volume’ forms also have the functional benefit of being easily legible over imagery and footage — meaning the artist’s work doesn’t need to be darkened or reduced in any way for legibility.