Capital FM launches new logo

London’s Capital Radio tomorrow unveils its new marque, created by brand identity specialist Design Motive, which reflects its increasingly youth-oriented musical output and appeals to younger weekend listeners.

The new logo is based on a combination of a smile and a radiowave. It features a new, as yet unnamed, contemporary bespoke typeface created by Design Motive and a “more adaptable” colour scheme.

It aims to mirror the station’s output more accurately – a greater variety of music, focusing on weekend and evening club music such as Artful Dodger and Craig David to appeal to younger listeners.

Capital’s new brand replaces the “cheesy” sunshine logo and clumsy American typewriter font, says Design Motive design director Simon Verrall.

“The previous smiling sun was seen by most listeners as the face of Chris Tarrant, who is just one of our presenters. It tended to attract an older listener, tuning in to Capital’s ‘middle of the road’ music,” he adds.

Susan Byrne, Capital FM brand manager, says research showed that music is an important part of young listeners’ weekends and evenings, and that some felt alienated by the previous sunshine logo. “We recognised young people’s listening habits and wanted to tap into that without alienating our loyal, slightly older audience,” she says.

The marque, which goes live this week, will be used on the new brand identity and across the station’s sub-brands. This includes the weekend warm-up club music show Capital Club Countdown, Capital FM’s on-line ventures and charity events such as Help a London Child. It will also be applied to all the station’s promotional materials.