OPPO

Founded in 2004, OPPO is one of the world’s leading innovators in smart devices. Since 2008 they have been producing smartphones and gained recognition for their innovative smartphone designs and camera technology.

Industry:

Technology & Consumer Electronics

Services:

UI Sound Design Audio Strategy Audio Coordination

Overview

OPPO is one of the world’s leading innovators in smart devices. They have since then embraced the attitude and mindset of “Inspiration Ahead”. An attitude that represents OPPO’s wish to empower their users in an ever-challenging world and environment.

With great power comes great responsibility, even when it comes to audio. Especially when we seek to empower and elevate the users.

We were approached by OPPO and Epic Sound to help lay the auditory strategic groundwork for their new UI sounds, act as a creative sparring partner and to be audio coordinators throughout the process.

Listen to OPPO sounds

The challenge

With the new and improved operating system “ColorOS 14” in their products, OPPO also wanted new and improved sounds to accompany it and represent the new direction of the brand. OPPO already had a clear vision for what they wanted to represent and how they wanted their products to feel, a vision that was defined by its ability to be flowing, intelligent and nourishing. They called it “Aquamorphism 2.0”.

Water is the essence of life. It’s alive and able to move naturally with fluidity while nurturing everything. Water is inherently human, impacting our emotions in a soft and effortless way. This is the basis of Aquamorphism and the basis of what OPPO wanted to express in their new sound as well.

Our challenge was now to design a suite of new UI sounds for the operating system, that consisted of everything from small button sounds, to lush and beautiful ringtones.

But before we could begin production, we first needed to define how Aquamorphism would be represented in sound.

The solution

Defining a new sound

To help establish a solid foundation for the sounds, we needed to find what elements of Aquamorphism we were able to express and the individual auditory attributes of each of those elements.

Alive

We ended up defining the keyword “Alive” as the mother of movement. This would encompass the flowing elements of water and sound.

Intelligent Dynamics

This would be the keyword that highlighted the logical elements between sounds. Water is both dynamic and intelligent. It is able to take on many forms while overcoming obstacles and challenges effortlessly.

Elegant / Enriching

Together with Epic Sound, we crafted an elegant and enriching audio identity built around two main categories: Core UI Sounds and Sound Groups (ringtones, alarms, and notifications) that each express the brand within a unified musical universe.

Core UI sounds

A key part in our design of the core UI sounds was to keep them subtle, pleasant and minimal while retaining clear communication. Together with Epic Sound, we synthesized abstract water drop concepts and soft-attack frequencies comfortable for human ears. Mechanical sounds like camera shutters were layered with water drop textures to soften their feel, while longer UI alerts utilized fluid wave-like swell structures for a lush soundscape.

Groups

When designing the different sound groups, we gave each its own distinct personality within Aquamorphism, from fast-moving rhythmic arpeggios that mirror water ripples to long, morphing ambient pads for ringtones and alarms. Each group provides a beautiful, de-stressing soundscape while ensuring the overall suite feels like one cohesive family. You can listen to these groups on the official ColorOS 14 page.

The result

It was a true pleasure working together with OPPO and Epic Sound to make the vision and project come to life. Through a collaborative effort we made Aquamorphism 2.0 come to life. By leveraging the fluidity and nurturing qualities of water, we meticulously designed UI sounds that seamlessly combined softness, logic, and elegance. Our focus on infusing each sound with beauty and functionality aimed to elevate users’ daily interactions with OPPO devices. Ultimately, our collaborative effort sought to deliver an immersive and emotionally resonant experience within the ColorOS 14 and OPPO ecosystem.