Sound Experience
The science of sound for next-generation experiences
Sound Experience is the sound design agency of IRCAM Amplify. It builds the sonic identity of spaces, products and brand moments, grounded in psychoacoustics research rather than taste.
Brand Appart has designed the brand since 2024: the Sound Experience logotype, then the website, then the redesign that followed as the positioning sharpened.
The challenge
Science that has to read as luxury
Psychoacoustics is the differentiator and the risk. Lead too hard on the research and the brand turns dry and technical. Drop it and it becomes one more creative studio.
Its own name, under IRCAM's
The agency needed to stand on its own in front of brands while visibly belonging to IRCAM Amplify. Independent enough to be hired, affiliated enough to inherit the credibility.
Selling sound on a silent page
A website cannot play what the agency actually makes. The interface had to suggest sound without asking anyone to press play first.
Brand Strategy
Its own agency. Unmistakably IRCAM.
Sound Experience had to read as its own agency and as part of IRCAM Amplify at once. Too independent and it loses the institute's scientific authority. Too subordinate and it stops being an agency a brand can hire.
The positioning settled on the pairing itself: psychoacoustics research applied to premium experience. Science as the proof, luxury as the register. Everything since, from the logotype to the site, argues that one idea.
Brand Identity
Built in the mirror of IRCAM Amplify.
The logotype is drawn as a reflection of the parent brand. Sound is built on IRCAM, Experience mirrors Amplify, and by IRCAM Amplify sits underneath. The affiliation is legible before anyone reads a word explaining it.
The system runs on blue, champagne and yellow. When the site was redesigned we kept all of it and changed how it breathes: sections alternating light and dark instead of one continuous blue, redundant headings cut, and AI-generated visuals replaced with real projects from the catalogue. An agency that sells craft cannot illustrate itself with images it did not make.
Deliverable
From the logotype to the live site.
We designed the identity, built the website and kept both moving as the offer grew: the Sound Experience logotype and its variants, branded 3D backgrounds for remote meetings, then the site across twelve pages, with an interactive hero where sound waves respond to the cursor, a sticky audio player, a portfolio sorted by tags instead of fixed categories, and dedicated case study pages.
The hero effect runs as a procedural web filter rather than 3D video, so the site stays fast. A modular landing came later, assembled from reusable blocks the team recombines on its own.
Result
Research you can hear before you read it.
The site says in one screen what used to take several paragraphs: sound design backed by science, made for premium spaces.
The portfolio holds real work sorted by context, from retail to events, exceptional venues and e-commerce, so a prospect lands on their own case instead of a generic one. The collaboration has run since 2024 and the brand keeps extending without a reset.
Testimonial
We've been working with Brand Appart for two years. From day one, we defined the scope together where we wanted to go, and how we wanted to work. They understood our business and our audience straight away, which made everything easy: art direction, content, speed of execution. They rebuilt our art direction and our website, and the impact is clear. People finally get what we do.
