Spotify
PopUp
A playlist that changes more than pop does.
Pop is one of the fastest evolving musical genres. What people were listening to yesterday might not be listened to tomorrow. But songs aren't the only thing that evolves, as the audience is also constantly changing.
These days, English language pop music is more popular than ever before in Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries. A boom that explains the success of Pop Up, a Spotify playlist is one of the most listened to playlists in the platform. It's updated every week to include all the latest releases and chart-topping tracks from world-famous artists such as The Weekend, Kali Uchis, Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish and Miley Cyrus, among many others.
ClientSpotify
Date2021
The Challenge
When Spotify asked us for a creative proposal for the design of the Pop Up covers, the first thing we asked ourselves was: what is the common thread between all the songs and artists of today's hugely diverse and heterogeneous genre? The main challenge of this project was to find a visual language capable of grouping together all the artists in the pop scene, without it seeming forced.
The Solution
In the end, we realised that one thing characteristic of all the songs on the playlist is that their success is ephemeral, hence the name Pop Up. Pop hits come and go like the waves of the ocean. And the object that best represents this idea is the blow-up float.
Floats are a part of the universe depicted in pop music videos, and an object that makes us want to play. The huge versatility of inflatable shapes got us hooked. That's why this became the linchpin of the project. As a result, we created a collection of semi-transparent 3D inflatable frames, which appear alongside the images of the featured artists.
Floats are a part of the universe depicted in pop music videos, and an object that makes us want to play. The huge versatility of inflatable shapes got us hooked. That's why this became the linchpin of the project. As a result, we created a collection of semi-transparent 3D inflatable frames, which appear alongside the images of the featured artists.
We selected eye-catching colours within the Spotify colour palette to make it easier to create the different covers. And for the Lock Up (the title of the playlist), we looked for a simple typographic trick and decided to give a nod to our gaseous universe, raising the word 'up' above the baseline.
Thanks to an element as simple as a blow-up float, we gave Pop Up an attractive, unique, dynamic graphics system that is easy to replicate as many times as necessary.
Thanks to an element as simple as a blow-up float, we gave Pop Up an attractive, unique, dynamic graphics system that is easy to replicate as many times as necessary.