From linear to on demand

Business

While radio reception via FM, cable and satellite is declining, internet radio is becoming increasingly important. With time-delayed streams, podcasts and apps, radio is reinventing itself. Stan Hema has been accompanying this transformation since 2016 at Deutschlandradio, which is now acquiring new listeners without losing old ones.

The public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, founded in Cologne in 1962, became Deutschlandradio in 1994 and, together with RIAS from West Berlin and the former GDR broadcaster Deutschlandsender Kultur, was transformed into a corporation under public law. Deutschlandradio is now an umbrella brand with the three sub-brands Deutschlandfunk, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and Deutschlandfunk Nova.

Based on Deutschlandradio’s brand architecture, developed by the strategy agency diffferent, Stan Hema has created a design system that visually connects the family of broadcasters while making differences between them visible. The aim was to find a brand code that works across stations and different media.

‘By establishing a strong, modular symbol, we enable greater visibility and at the same time preserve the individual character of the sub-brands,’ emphasises Stefan Becker from the Design team at Stan Hema. Because: ‘An audio brand has to work on digital and analogue platforms and on air. And the experience has to be uniform.’

The brand language was defined independently of the implementation; the rules for implementation were only established thereafter. We helped build and coach an in-house design team for the implementation and ongoing maintenance of the visual language. We have provided them with all the parameters needed to further develop the brand independently.