With over 400 million users, Muse Group is undoubtedly a leader in its industry, but until recently, its identity was scattered, with a suite of tools and programs that were well-designed but disjointed. Looking to change this, the team at Muse reached out to US-based brand consultancy Collins with a simple brief: unify Muse’s offerings under a single, distinctive brand.

“We needed to bridge vastly different audiences — from a 15-year-old learning Ultimate Guitar to a 40-year-old composer using MuseScore,” says Collins CCO Nick Ace. “Rather than forcing a rigid template across all products, we developed an adaptive, responsive design language.”

Collins devised a punchy identity that draws on the ideas and aesthetics of the Suprematism abstract art movement. Founded in the early 20th century by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, Suprematism’s focus on pure feeling over figurative depiction became a key driving force behind Muse’s new look. “[Malevich’s] philosophy aligned perfectly with Muse’s challenge and the purpose of what we call ‘creative fluency’,” notes Ace. “Just as Suprematism sought to transcend literal representation in favour of pure emotional expression, we needed to capture something fundamental: the feeling of musical creation itself.”

As such, Muse’s identity forgoes the usual focus on engineering complexity and technical specs – as seen in the branding of many of Muse’s competitors – and instead highlights “the resonance, the harmony, and the creative breakthroughs” of music making. This notion manifests in elements such as the motion design, which builds on the iconic shape of the musical staff (the five horizontal lines used in musical notation). All movement originates from these lines, flexing inwards and outwards depending on the context.

Collins also developed a custom typeface family called Muse Display with four distinct styles, to speak to the various creative processes. According to Ace, “each shares the same structural DNA – proportions, spacing, underlying geometry – but expresses different personalities through carefully crafted details. For example, Sonata, which is used for MuseScore, features “rounded, elegant curves reminiscent of musical notation”, while Shred, which is used for Ultimate Guitar, features “sharp angular terminals that capture the intensity of a guitar solo”.

Throughout, the team at Collins prioritised the simple feeling of creation over the more technical aspects of the software. Even the respective colour palettes for each of Muse’s products (Ultimate Guitar, MuseScore, Audacity and MuseClass) look to establish unique “emotional territories”, whilst working together as a whole. They let the quality of the products speak for themselves, and instead ensured that Muse’s visual system is vibrant and harmonious – much like the actual music.

“This approach positions Muse not as just another music software company, but as a real creative partner,” reflects Ace. “The new brand seeks to transcend temporal boundaries (avoiding dated, dull tech aesthetics and genre limitations), creating a language that will sit, we hope, outside of time and grow with users as they develop their own creative fluency.”

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