Spotify Modus Mio

Hardly any genre is as popular in Germany as hip-hop. This genre of music has alway shad a significant impact on an entire youth culture. Rap is omnipresent - be it in film music, as an advertising song or at sporting events. And hip-hop is also one of the top genres in streaming.

“Modus Mio” is the most important hip-hop playlist in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and is a milestone in the careers of countless German rap artists. With now well over 1.8 million followers, “Modus Mio” is currently the most sought-after playlist in the hip-hop scene.

The playlist rebranding was launched at one of Europe's biggest hip hop festivals,“Splash!”, where the Berlin rap crew 1019, Badmómzjay, Dante YN, 01099 and Juju, who duly celebrated the relaunch. Since then it has been weekly updated on Spotify and on Modus Mio’s main social channel, Instagram.

The graphic design and art direction allow the communications of “Modus Mio”, which means “My Mode” or “Mode Million”, to be loud when needed, and more toned down when necessary. The art direction helps artists in expressing that they sometimes can be big and bold, sometimes the complete opposite of you and everyone else. It’s all about reflecting what hip-hop is all about.

The brand identity relies on a specific set of typography lockups, set in Spotify’s Circular, that are always going against each other and leans from the left to the right. They are not going to be still and straight up. They will always lean and have a distinct presence.

This is combined with an inverted image treatment that helps to show the opposite side of every artist. The brand identity is solely relying on black and white colors to create and build on the same contrast of either this or that. It’s all about establishing a simple yet impactful visual world where the artists take the center stage.