Studio Foss capture the flow of music in their identity for electronic instrument company UDO 

Located in the electronic music hub of Bristol, UDO creates powerful, intuitive and accessible instruments that focus on ‘the power of play.’ Since its inception in 2019 – founded by synth designer George Hearn – London-based Studio Foss have been working with the company on all facets of their identity. We spoke with Co-founder & Creative Director Magnus Hearn to learn more, from naming to the creation and implementation of the identity. Created with the company’s formation, the name, ‘Unidentified Dancing Objects,’ aims to capture a feeling. “We didn’t want the name to describe what UDO does,” Hearn tells us, “but rather to evoke thoughts of the powerful effect that electronic musical instruments can facilitate: for musicians the flow-state feeling of forgetting the world and becoming one with your instrument, and for listeners the feeling of losing yourself to the music and becoming an ‘unidentified object’ being moved by the sound.” Reflecting an open-ended name requires an open-ended wordmark or symbol. Therefore, Studio Foss opted for a series of abstract icons, responding to the intangible sensations of sound, movement and energy. “For visual reference, we took a deep dive into the world of old-school record label logos,” he explains, “with a particular shout-out going to the great collection by Luca Lozano compiled into a book published by Klasse Wrecks called Record Label Logo Archive Vol.1.”