Maximilian Mauracher and David Rindlisbacher’s identity for /100 aims to make the sonic tangible

A CERTAIN N° OF THINGS, also known as /100, is an online radio show devoted purely to the artistic expression of sound. Experimenting in cross-genre composure and questioning our tangible and ephemeral needs, each entry bases its composition on a single object, with the aim for one-hundred entries to complete the project. Well underway to reach their goal, the team are hoping to produce a veritable archive of sonic abstract art. Initiated by Viennanese art theoretician and electronic music producer Felipe Duque, the conceptually-heavy project required a stoic but striking identity to uphold it – leading to Duque reaching out to the dream-team of Maximilian Mauracher and David Rindlisbacher. The respective Berlin and Lisbon based design-duo sought to create an atypical imagery-led radio identity, where the visuals that support the music are adaptable and dynamic, rather than predictably static. This has resulted in outlined, 3D illustrations based on stock images. “They are loosely connected to the episodes,” Mauracher explains, “there’s, for example, one episode called ‘white water,’ about the sea; we picked a nautilus to visualise it,” also giving the example of using a bookshelf in response to a poetry-themed entry. In a beautifully modular website, the gridded aesthetic is reminiscent of a museum’s archives, “mixing objects with animals and living objects,” Mauracher adds, in doing so conceptually asking “how do we define ‘things’?” Never changing a winning choice, the duo opted for Neue Haas Grotesk as their champion typeface, supporting it with Swiss 721, leading to an elementary but succinctly impactful identity – made all the more memorable through its aqueous and compelling bespoke logo. “It’s inspired by a cassette tape, where the tape goes in a loop,” Mauracher concludes, “it is also a little bit inspired by an infinity-symbol, counteracting the idea of a limited archive.”