Trollbäck+Company Designs Strategy and Visual Identity for Audio Start-Up IRIS

New York branding and design studio Trollbäck+Company has created a substantive, industry-disrupting brand identity for IRIS, a next-gen audio technology start-up promising to revolutionize the way we see, live, and experience sound.

In advance of its July 28^th IRIS Flow Headphones launch, Trollbäck+Company delivered a compelling brand foundation, logo and visual identity to position IRIS’ patented audio technology as a ushering in new era of “Active Listening” –– helping the UK-based audio brand stand out in a sea of corporate 360° audio and 3D sound technologies.

Alex Moulton, Chief Creative Officer, Trollbäck+Company says: “By leaning into the science, technology, and sustainable philosophy at the heart of IRIS, we’ve given IRIS the tools to tell a brand story that goes beyond product and shows people how better sound can shape a better world.”

Jacobi Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, Founder & CEO at IRIS says: “Brand was an essential tool for us in securing funding and investment to bring IRIS to market, and the work by Trollbäck+Company empowered us to tell our story and enact mission for investors and audiences alike.”

Listen Well

IRIS, which promises to add a live, immersive quality to any recorded audio was founded by a three-person team of entrepreneurs and audio engineers in 2018. After doing a deep dive into the science and technology of 3D audio, Trollbäck+Company kickstarted the initial branding process last year by developing an initial strategy, vision, and tone of voice for the IRIS brand.

Elliott Chaffer, Executive Creative Director, Trollbäck+Company says: “Our work successfully positions IRIS as a bold, experimental, and human-first alternative to the current chaos of the emerging, immersive audio industry.”

By communicating all of the ways IRIS is working to ignite a movement to Listen Well –– from drastically improving sound quality and dynamics to its unique parallels with the future of wellness, science, and sustainability –– Trollbäck+Company helped take the IRIS brand from concept to market, using compassionate storytelling to attract funding and interest in its initial investment and planning phases.

A living system

IRIS’ logo, color palette, and eye-catching visual identity similarly work together to paint a picture of a modern and connected world of living sound.

In the logo and lettermark, two interlocking pieces of the IRIS ’S’ represent the formation of a living system; the internal and external; the intersection of immersive technology and progressive biology. An accompanying visual identity, brought to life a Fibonacci-inspired design system of layouts, textures, and colors helped further define that vision as the brand generated early excitement.

The logo is now featured across a vast array of IRIS-designed products, from app buttons to internal speaker design to custom Red Bull Racing headsets created for the brand’s official audio partnership with Aston Martin.

Today, IRIS launches its state-of-the art wireless headphones with built-in IRIS technology to the public, bearing the lettermark designed by Trollbäck+Company.

IRIS will launch the headphones with a campaign called ‘Find Your Flow’, exploring the way in which flow state and immersive audio play a crucial role in human performance and mental wellbeing. The campaign will feature Max Verstappen and Alex Albon, drivers for Formula 1 team Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, who are a partner of IRIS, alongside a variety of voices from different walks of life; all connected through stories of how they find their flow.

A culture of sound

For IRIS, brand has played an integral role in defining the company from its nascence. Using design and strategy, the work by Trollbäck+Company positions the brand as a compassionate, human-led product while simultaneously highlighting the impressive, state-of the art design and technology that drives the brand’s appeal. When brought together, these elements ultimately serve to define IRIS as an audio brand on a mission to reshape the audio industry –– and encourage us all to “Listen Well.”