In recent years, in addition to using visual logos, many companies and brands have also made audio logos to enhance brand recognition, such as Netflix and McDonald’s. A few days ago, the Wikimedia Foundation (Wikimedia Foundation) announced that it will launch a new sound logo and sound content in response to the increasing sound content of media projects such as Wikipedia and Wikidata, so as to improve brand recognition.
The Wikimedia Foundation pointed out that this sound logo and content were selected through a global “Voice of Knowledge for All Humanity” competition, which was selected by community votes held by volunteer editors of Wikimedia in December 2022. The second award-winning work was produced by Thaddeus Osborne, a nuclear engineer in Virginia, USA. It combined the sound of flipping books, keyboard typing and melody, and named it “The Voice of All Human Knowledge”.
Branding is an astonishingly serious endeavor. British Petroleum famously spent $210 million on a logo redesign, while Pepsi’s now retired Globe icon was birthed from a woo-woo spirit quest that was so far out it makes conspiracy theory videos look like sober documents. Organizations take their audio logos, sometimes called sound marks, just as seriously. The most famous is probably Netflix’s “Ta Dum” sound, but others are equally recognizable. Think of the Taco Bell gong sound, for example. Or If I type, “Ba Da Ba Ba Bah,” does the word “McDonald’s” pop into your head?
The Sound of All Human Knowledge comes from a contest launched in September 2022. Over the course of a month, Wikimedia says it received over 3,235 sound entries, submitted by 2,094 people in 135 countries. The organization assembled a team of volunteers and sound experts to narrow the possibilities to ten finalists, and, in true Wiki fashion, put it up for a vote from its users.
The winning sound features recordings of pages turning in a book, mouse clicks, and keyboard taps over a bed of warm synthesizer tones. It was made by Thaddeus Osborne, a nuclear engineer and musician based in Virginia. Osborne earned $2,500 for winning the contest, and will now rerecord the sound logo with help from a professional studio, paid for by Wikimedia. (In other words, the sound isn’t in its final form, but it’s close to what you’ll hear out in the wild.)
“Thaddeus’s submission captures the curiosity and joy that Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects create for millions of people around the world,” said Zack McCune, director of brand at the Wikimedia Foundation, in a statement.
Wikipedia says it’s eager to do more work in collaboration with voice assistants and tech companies which will feature the sound, and says the new sound will be a part of that project in the coming months.
