How do you build a sonic brand?
Most people can recognise a familiar logo within a fraction of a second. Distinctive colours, typography and visual symbols allow organisations to establish an identity that remains remarkably consistent across products, advertising and digital services. Sound, however, has often been treated very differently. Many organisations commission an audio logo, perhaps a short mnemonic played at the end of an advertisement, and regard the task as complete. During his online guest lecture for Edinburgh Napier University, Sean Thornton challenged this assumption directly. Drawing upon more than a decade working in audio branding and as co-founder of Audio UX, he argued that effective sonic branding is not created through isolated assets but through coherent systems. Throughout the lecture, one idea repeatedly emerged. Sound should be treated as a complete design language rather than a collection of individual sounds.
Thornton began by reflecting upon his own professional journey. Although he initially studied music with ambitions of becoming a film composer, early experiences within game audio and commercial music gradually led him towards a field that scarcely existed as a recognised discipline when he was a student. That progression illustrated one of the lecture’s broader themes. Creative careers rarely follow predictable paths. Formal education provides an important foundation, though many professional specialisms emerge only through experimentation, curiosity and the willingness to explore opportunities beyond conventional career routes. Audio branding, he suggested, represents precisely this kind of evolving discipline, combining composition, sound design, psychology, branding and user experience into a field that continues to redefine itself.
Before discussing design methods, Thornton carefully distinguished between several closely related concepts. Audio branding, in its simplest form, involves the strategic use of sound to establish or reinforce identity. Yet he argued that this definition captures only part of the picture. Organisations increasingly communicate across websites, mobile applications, physical products, voice assistants, advertising, podcasts and public spaces. Users encounter brands through countless interactions rather than through a single advertisement or logo. If every one of those interactions produces unrelated sounds, opportunities to build familiarity and trust are quickly lost. Holistic audio branding therefore asks a different question. Instead of considering how an individual sound performs in isolation, it asks how every auditory experience contributes towards a coherent and recognisable identity. The objective is not consistency through repetition, but consistency through design.
This broader perspective naturally led to Thornton’s discussion of Audio User Experience, or Audio UX, which underpins his company’s approach. The distinction is subtle yet important. Audio branding concerns the sounds themselves. Audio UX concerns how people experience those sounds. A perfectly crafted sonic identity still fails if it frustrates, distracts or overwhelms the people who encounter it. Throughout the lecture, Thornton repeatedly encouraged students to approach sound through empathy before aesthetics. Designers should not begin by asking whether a sound expresses the personality of a brand. They should first ask whether it genuinely improves the experience of the person hearing it. Successful sonic branding therefore begins with people rather than brands. When the user experience has been designed well, brand recognition becomes a natural consequence rather than the primary objective.
This philosophy becomes much clearer when viewed alongside visual identity design. Few organisations would expect a designer to create only a logo while ignoring colours, typography, photography and layout. Successful visual identities are built from systems of related elements that can be applied consistently across many different contexts. Thornton argued that sound should be approached in exactly the same way. Instead of delivering a handful of isolated assets, audio designers should create flexible frameworks capable of supporting products, advertising, digital interfaces, physical environments and future developments that may not yet exist. Individual sounds remain important, though their real value lies in how they work together. Sonic branding therefore becomes less about composing memorable cues and more about designing a language that other designers can continue to use.
One of the lecture’s most distinctive ideas concerned the difference between creating assets and creating design systems. Traditional projects often revolve around a short audio logo, a notification sound or a piece of advertising music delivered as a finished product. Thornton argued that this approach solves only today’s problem. Instead, he proposed building reusable sonic building blocks from which many future experiences could emerge. Characteristic instrumental colours, recurring melodic gestures, harmonic language, rhythmic behaviour and carefully selected textures become components within a wider design framework rather than fixed compositions. The designer is no longer delivering a finished collection of sounds. They are creating the vocabulary from which an organisation’s sonic identity can continue to grow.
Thornton illustrated this philosophy through the development of a comprehensive sonic identity for USA Today. Rather than beginning with musical preferences or fashionable production styles, the project started by asking a more fundamental question. What should one of America’s largest news organisations sound like? The resulting concept centred upon the idea of a sonic mosaic that reflected the diversity of voices, cultures and experiences represented within the publication. Recordings of instruments associated with different regions of the United States were combined with contributions from a wide variety of people, gradually creating a distinctive palette of sonic materials. These recordings were never intended simply to become finished pieces of music. They formed the foundation of a much larger design system from which future compositions, interface sounds, broadcast material and branded experiences could all develop while remaining recognisably connected. The case study demonstrated that successful audio branding begins long before composition. It begins by defining the ideas, relationships and design principles from which every subsequent sound will emerge.
Perhaps the most forward-looking aspect of Thornton’s presentation concerned what happens after a sonic identity has been created. Visual brands are supported by style guides, governance and clear documentation that help maintain consistency across years of future development. Thornton argued that sonic identities require the same level of stewardship. Designers should not simply hand over a collection of audio files. They should provide the principles, frameworks and guidance that allow other teams to implement those sounds consistently across new products, services and technologies. Designing a sonic brand therefore involves far more than composing memorable sounds. It means creating a living design language capable of evolving without losing its identity. That broader challenge would become the focus of the remainder of the lecture, as Thornton explored how these systems are implemented, managed and refined over time.
Having established the principles behind holistic audio branding, Thornton turned to the practical question that ultimately determines whether those ideas succeed. Designing a sonic identity is only the beginning. The greater challenge lies in ensuring that it remains useful, recognisable and adaptable as organisations evolve. Throughout the second half of the lecture, he argued that the true value of an audio brand emerges not from individual assets, but from the systems that allow those assets to be deployed intelligently across countless future experiences.
The USA Today project provided a detailed illustration of this philosophy in practice. Rather than delivering a fixed collection of completed sounds, Thornton’s team developed a series of reusable audio components that could be assembled in different ways depending upon the context. This modular approach reflected the same design thinking used throughout modern visual branding. Designers rarely create a new colour palette or typeface for every campaign. Instead, they draw from a shared system that allows individual pieces of communication to remain distinctive while still feeling unmistakably connected. Thornton argued that sound should operate according to exactly the same principle. By working with carefully designed components instead of inflexible assets, organisations gain the freedom to create new experiences without continually reinventing their sonic identity. The result is a brand that remains recognisable while continuing to evolve alongside new products, technologies and audiences.
One of the most revealing aspects of this system involved thinking about sound through the language of design rather than music. Thornton described key signatures as global design patterns capable of giving different pieces of audio a shared tonal identity. Characteristic textures functioned in much the same way as colours within a visual brand, while processed recordings became recognisable building blocks that could be reused in multiple contexts. Even small musical gestures could perform the same role as graphic motifs or visual icons, quietly reinforcing identity without demanding attention. This perspective shifted the discussion away from individual compositions towards relationships between sonic elements. Listeners may never consciously recognise these patterns, yet together they help establish familiarity across an increasingly diverse collection of products and services.
The USA Today identity demonstrated how this philosophy could be implemented across very different media. A podcast introduction, a smart speaker news briefing and a broadcast sequence all required different durations, different pacing and different levels of branding. Treating each as an independent project would inevitably weaken consistency. Instead, every experience drew from the same underlying design language while adapting its presentation to suit the situation. Thornton described, for example, how a brief branded audio fingerprint proved more appropriate for voice assistants than a longer musical introduction. Listeners asking for the latest headlines wanted information quickly. A concise sonic reminder of the brand communicated identity without delaying access to the content. User experience and branding were therefore not competing priorities. Each strengthened the other.
This naturally led to one of Thornton’s strongest practical messages. Designing an effective sonic identity is only half of the task. The identity must also be implemented consistently by the many people who will use it in the future. A beautifully designed audio logo achieves very little if nobody understands when it should be used, when silence would be more appropriate or how new material should relate to the existing system. Implementation therefore becomes a creative activity rather than an administrative one. Clear principles, documentation and governance allow organisations to grow their sonic identities confidently without gradually losing the coherence that made them distinctive in the first place.
Voice itself formed another important component of this broader system. Thornton argued that organisations should think beyond selecting an appropriate voice actor. Voice also encompasses conversational style, language, pacing and the structure of spoken interactions. These decisions become particularly significant as brands increasingly communicate through voice assistants, automated services and accessibility technologies. Designing effective conversations therefore requires the same careful planning applied to music and sound design. Every spoken interaction contributes towards the wider experience of the brand, making conversation design an integral part of holistic audio branding rather than a separate discipline.
Accessibility emerged as a recurring theme throughout this discussion. Thornton repeatedly returned to the idea that good sonic design should improve experiences for everyone rather than simply strengthening recognition. Voice interfaces, carefully considered auditory feedback and appropriately designed sonic cues can all help create more inclusive interactions for people with different sensory abilities. Importantly, these improvements should not be regarded as specialist features added for a small minority of users. Designing with accessibility in mind frequently produces better experiences for everybody. Rather than seeing accessibility as a constraint, Thornton encouraged students to view it as an opportunity to create richer, more intuitive and more human-centred experiences. Once again, the lecture returned to its central principle. Successful sonic branding begins with people rather than brands.
Towards the end of the lecture, Thornton reflected upon the future of the discipline with considerable optimism. Advances in spatial audio, wearable technology and increasingly precise location-aware devices present exciting opportunities to rethink how organisations communicate through sound. Yet these possibilities also introduce important ethical questions. Thornton imagined a future in which highly personalised spatial advertisements might follow listeners through everyday environments, responding continuously to their location and behaviour. Although technically possible, he questioned whether such applications would genuinely improve people’s lives. New technologies, he argued, should first be viewed as opportunities to create more meaningful experiences rather than simply more opportunities for marketing. The question is never merely what audio branding can do, but what it should do.
This concern led naturally to a broader critique of current practice. Thornton observed that many organisations continue to treat sonic branding as a superficial exercise, commissioning generic three-note logos or brief musical signatures without considering the wider user experience. As more companies embrace sound, he believes the greatest opportunity lies not in creating more branded audio, but in creating better branded audio. Holistic systems, careful implementation and genuine concern for the listener allow organisations to stand out far more effectively than louder or more intrusive branding ever could. Thoughtful design therefore becomes both a competitive advantage and an ethical responsibility.
The lecture concluded by returning to one of its earliest themes. Brands are not static objects. They evolve continually alongside the people who use them. Thornton argued that sonic identities should therefore be managed in much the same way as living organisms. They require ongoing stewardship, periodic refinement and careful adaptation as technologies, expectations and cultural contexts change. An audio brand is never truly finished. It develops through continual listening, evaluation and improvement. Ultimately, Thornton challenged students to stop thinking about audio branding as the design of sounds and instead see it as the design of relationships. Every carefully considered interaction strengthens the connection between people and the organisations they encounter. When approached in this way, sonic branding becomes less about recognition and more about creating experiences that people genuinely value.