January 20, 2021
10:23 am
Pentagram partners Sascha Lobe and Yuri Suzuki have designed the new identity for the Musical Instrumental Digital Interface (MIDI), based on musical forms and frequency waves.
The work includes a new logo (static and sonic), sound design, video and motion graphics as well as typography.
MIDI is used by musicians, producers and DJs as a way to create and share musical work. Before MIDI technology, there was no standardised way of synchronising electronic musical instruments from different companies.
In the early 1980s, Roland founder Ikutaro Kakehashi and Sequential Circuits president Dave Smith discussed how an industry standard could be formalised and came up with the plans for MIDI. The first instruments that used the technology were the Roland Jupiter-6 and the Prophet 600, both released in 1982.