{"id":13640,"date":"2025-08-20T18:36:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T11:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cstc.vn\/blogtsk\/only-rebrands-iconic-hi-fi-company-cambridge-audio-for-a-new-era\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T18:36:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T11:36:24","slug":"only-rebrands-iconic-hi-fi-company-cambridge-audio-for-a-new-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cstc.vn\/blogtsk\/only-rebrands-iconic-hi-fi-company-cambridge-audio-for-a-new-era\/","title":{"rendered":"Only rebrands iconic hi-fi company Cambridge Audio for a new era"},"content":{"rendered":"

Only<\/a> has rebranded Cambridge Audio, the much-loved British hi-fi brand founded in 1968.<\/p>\n

The Manchester-based studio, co-founded by brothers Daniel and Matthew Tweddle, started working with the company at the end of 2023. Cambridge Audio wanted an agency that had experience in both music and industrial design, as the new identity feeds across product, digital, and marketing and comms.<\/p>\n

Nick Udall, head of marketing at Cambridge Audio, says the work was prompted by a need to attract and engage a broader range of users.<\/p>\n

He says the company had \u201can early mover advantage\u201d when it first got into streaming, but its brand still tended to speak to the older, male audience that tends to dominate the hi-fi market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at the data from the streaming giants, there are more female listeners than male,\u201d Udall explains. \u201cWe needed to change not just the brand, and how we look and feel to a younger and more diverse audience, but also the product set that goes with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\nhttps:\/\/d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2025\/08\/5_Cambridge_Case_Study.mp4<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

As with many projects which look to modernise legacy brands, the challenge was to attract new people without alienating the loyal, existing customer base \u2013 \u201cIf we get something wrong, we\u2019ll be the first to know about it,\u201d Udall laughs.<\/p>\n

Daniel Tweddle, Only\u2019s strategy director, says the key thing was to \u201cavoid the temptation to pivot everything towards the sensibilities and tastes of the new demographic you\u2019re trying to reach.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thinking here was not to pivot from one group to another, but to broaden out the definition of who we were trying to speak to,\u201d he explains. \u201cWhat do they have in common? It\u2019s passion and enthusiasm for music, so we wanted to build around that feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Matt Savage, Cambridge Audio\u2019s lead designer, this diversity made it a tricky brief. \u201cIt\u2019s a hard brand to pin down,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe sell \u00a399 headphones, and we sell \u00a35,000 amplifiers. That\u2019s a fairly broad church.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only\u2019s new identity for Cambridge Audio<\/p>\n

And both Savage and Udall say the brand had to resonate internally too, among staff whose shared love of music manifests in different ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe company is made up of music fans,\u201d Udall explains. \u201cWe have everyone from pioneering ex-dubstep DJs all the way to me, who wanted to be the fourth guitarist in Iron Maiden. The challenge was to unlock some of that authenticity and embrace that with a fierceness we\u2019ve maybe been scared to show before.\u201d<\/p>\n

The previous branding had become quite confused \u2013 at one point Udall says there were five different logo variations in the market. Matthew Tweddle, Only\u2019s creative director, says the most recent version was quite \u201ccorporate,\u201d while Daniel Tweddle says there was a tendency to show up in a very technical way, which could make the products seem inaccessible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to make it easier to create desirability and emotional connection,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Only\u2019s new identity for Cambridge Audio<\/p>\n

The company had already honed in on a brand idea \u2013 \u201cmade by music\u201d \u2013 and wanted to keep the mark, which is a small circle inside a bigger one.<\/p>\n

But Only changed the way the mark is used with the logotype, allowing them to appear independently \u2013 \u201cto give them more power in different contexts\u201d \u2013 and redrew the logotype.<\/p>\n

This was a tricky job, Matthew Tweddle explains, because of the many manufacturing and production processes that shape how it appears. \u201cThere are so many ways that it\u2019s seen on the products,\u201d he says. There was a lot of consideration about the weighting of each letter and a lot of nuance in the way it\u2019s designed.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new type system, built around Klim Type Foundry\u2019s S\u00f6hne<\/em> and Tiempos Headline,<\/em> balances \u201cattitude and confidence\u201d with a more \u201chigh-end premium audio bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt allows us to communicate in a wide range of tones to different audiences at different times, while always feeling consistent,\u201d Matthew Tweddle says.<\/p>\n

Only\u2019s new type for Cambridge Audio<\/p>\n

The colour palette focuses on black and white, but there are other colours, inspired by designs from the Cambridge Audio archives, which are being rolled out too, most notably a burnt orange.<\/p>\n

Over the period of working together, Matthew Tweddle says they encouraged the Cambridge Audio team \u201cto take design as seriously as they do engineering.\u201d Through those conversations, \u201cthe scope of what started out as an identity project has grown and grown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel Tweddle says the new audiences the brand wants to reach \u201creally care about the aesthetics of the products, not just great sound,\u201d and that had to shape every design decision, from the product screens\u2019 UI to the packaging and the new website.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe technology has always been amazing, but the interface itself, and the design of some of those elements, didn\u2019t give you that immediate sense of a best-in-class experience,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2025\/08\/19_Cambridge_Case_Study.mp4<\/a><\/div>\n

Udall says the response to the new look has already been encouraging. \u201cMy inbox is buzzing and I have had people reaching out who would never normally be reaching out,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s giving us the ability to talk to different audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

That manifests in new collaborations with \u201cbrands you would never have thought we would be in the same conversation with, let alone working with.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recent tie-up with Rough Trade and Selfridges is a good example, he says, showing how the new branding is helping them reach new retail spaces.<\/p>\n

And Savage says the work has had a huge impact on the hard-to-impress Cambridge Audio team too.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the unsung benefits of a rebrand is the day-to-day clarity it provides to those who work with the brand and the guidelines,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery project now happens with more fluency and more purpose, because everyone has this unified vision. Brands flourish in that environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only\u2019s newpackaging for Cambridge Audio
\nOnly\u2019s new art direction for Cambridge Audio
\nOnly\u2019s new identity for Cambridge Audio<\/p>\n

https:\/\/d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2025\/08\/10_Cambridge_Case_Study.mp4<\/a><\/div>\n
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Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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