OHMY positions amra as the 'north star' of the digital royalties industry

Leamington Spa-based digital design studio OHMY has created a new identity for digital licensing and collection platform amra, positioning it as "a beacon of light" that can help guide users through the complex landscape of royalties.

The studio was recommended for the project and landed the work based on its credentials in both the music and technology sectors. The project involved working with amra's London and New York teams and encompassed visual identity, copywriting, photography, motion, website development and UI design.

Although amra is a world-leading royalties platform, its former brand was not up to scratch with its offer, according to OHMY design director Tom Grant, and so the studio set out to create a brand and digital experience to match their ambitions.

"For too long, songwriters and creators have been in the dark about their earnings, and amra is committed to providing them transparency and a path to a brighter future", Grant explains. This is how the beacon of light idea came about, as it seeks to position amra as "a north star in the royalty landscape, illuminating the path to clarity and support for creators everywhere", he adds.

Since it is crucial to the new identity, the beacon was a massive part of the art direction, ever-present across imagery – through various treatments – and even in how OHMY arranged typography. Essentially, it threads together all of amra's brand components.

The platform's new logotype is entirely bespoke, comprising rounded shapes that are also featured in the beacon icon. Grant says it was designed to strike "the perfect balance between modernity and timelessness while steering clear of excessive playfulness or outdated nostalgia".

Clarity and simplicity are important principles in amra's brand message and are also demonstrated through its opulent colour palette. OHMY considered how the beacon could shine through in the palette without being lost in "a visual noise of different colours", says Grant.

This led to a streamlined core colour palette of white, black, and various shades of grey. Purple – retained from the original brand – was chosen as an accent colour. However, the studio opted to revitalise it with what Grant calls "vitality and a digital aura".

One challenge for OHMY was brand photography, for which it collaborated with Benedict Campbell Photography. The difficulty lies in how to showcase songwriters and producers without access to usable assets, according to Grant, and conducting a photo shoot was impractical given that the people needed were located around the world.

The solution, then, was AI – a tool both loved and feared by creatives. Starting with Krea AI software, OHMY trained a model using a combination of original photography and digital creations made in Adobe Photoshop.

"The resulting model became the foundation for generating images that resonated with the tone and spirit of amra's brand", says Grant. "Through meticulous, prompt refinement, we achieved a consistency that served as the baseline for further exploration."

Next, the studio turned to Midjourney, which Grant says is known for its ability to produce "visually arresting images with a distinct artistic touch". He explains how OHMY used this tool to generate image variations that "captured the nuanced essence [they] sought", with each iteration bringing them closer to the final product.

But AI-generated imagery was not the end of the process.

"To ensure these visuals seamlessly integrated with amra's brand aesthetic, we used Gigapixel AI for upscaling, followed by manual retouching in Photoshop", says Grant.

"This meticulous blend of AI and human touch culminated in a series of bespoke images that lie at the heart of amra's brand identity."

For amra's motion design, OHMY collaborated with two UK-based agencies – Pica and Studio Yatta.

Overall, OHMY hopes that the identity created can champion transparency, accessibility, as well as technological sophistication.