Independent concept
ROOM TONE
A listening bar in Bengaluru, built for the moment you stop talking and listen.
The brief
Bengaluru has one of India's liveliest independent music scenes and almost nowhere to simply listen. The choices are a loud bar or a club.
The brief was a listening bar that feels culturally sharp without being exclusive, and an identity loud enough for a poster wall while the room itself stays warm and quiet.
The ideaListen closer.
On a film set, the sound team records thirty seconds of an empty room before they wrap. That silence is called room tone, and every room has its own.
The identity is built on that moment. The symbol is a ripple: rings that touch at one point and grow outward, like sound leaving a source and filling a room. The full stop after the name is the silence that follows.
Positioning & voice
Six recurring nights give the brand its range: Side A, Side B, Deep Cuts, First Press, After Hours and Field Recordings.
An intentional space for music culture: part listening room, part bar, part independent platform, across jazz, electronic, hip-hop, ambient and Indian independent music.
- Promise
- Whole albums on a proper system, nights with a point of view, and food and drinks that know when to be quiet.
- Audience
- Designers, musicians, collectors and curious city professionals who want more from a night out than noise.
- Line
- Listen closer.
Personality
- Knowledgeable, not pretentiousKnows the record, never makes you feel you should.
- Underground, not inaccessibleIndependent in taste, open in welcome.
- Loud outside, quiet insideThe posters shout. The room lets the music do the talking.
Say this, not that
- Listen closer.Bengaluru's most exclusive bar.
- Quiet, please. Side A is playing.Audiophile-grade sonic experience.
- Bring a record nobody played the first time.Vibes, beats and good times.
- The kitchen goes quiet too.Only for true music lovers.
Identity system
Logo, palette and type: the parts every application is built from.
ALogo
BPalette
- Bone#E8E1D3
- Ink#0B0B0B
- Vinyl#E65327
- Olive#4E5B3F
- Slate#666869
CType
- DisplayBig ShouldersSide A. Deep cuts.Wordmark, posters, programme names
- TextInstrument SansWhole albums, start to finish.Menus, website, information
- TechnicalDM MonoSession 014 · 21:30Tracklists, times, serial numbers
- KannadaNoto Sans Kannadaಹತ್ತಿರದಿಂದ ಕೇಳಿLocal-language lines on signs and posters
The logo, explained
A condensed wordmark loud enough for a poster wall, and a symbol that says sound and room in one shape.
- 01
The Ripple
Six rings that touch at one point and grow outward, like sound leaving a source and filling a room. The orange dot is the source, always joined to the rings.
- 02
The wordmark
ROOM over TONE in Big Shoulders Display, stacked tight. A face first drawn for city signage, it holds up on a fascia, a poster or a matchbox.
- 03
The full stop
The silence after the sound. It is always the accent colour and ends every headline the brand writes.
Graphic language
Four graphic moves, one per piece, each a way of drawing sound. Each programme night owns one.
The Ripple
The symbol, blown up and cropped: the main move, and the Side A poster.
Waveform
A signal that breaks up as it runs, for After Hours and late electronic nights.
Halftone
Records and photographs as dots, analog and printable, for Deep Cuts.
Sound map
Ripples from real places in Karnataka, for Field Recordings.
Applications
The system at work, on every surface it lives on.
01 / 05The menu as a tracklist: Side A is drinks, Side B is food
02 / 05House rule No. 1, on the coaster; the matchbox holds 45, one for each minute of the record
03 / 05Side A: the Ripple, blown up
04 / 05Membership in metal: first seat, first press
05 / 05The programme online: filter by night, reserve a seat, on any screen
The working events page, built in code: filter the month by night, then reserve a seat and get a ticket. Nothing is booked or charged.
Brand guidelines
A 19-page book that lets the venue, its printers and its signmaker run the identity: the idea, every rule, the programme system and the applications.
- 19
- pages, A4 landscape
- 4
- logo versions in 5 colourways
- 4
- programme posters
- 10
- print-ready artworks
