The symphony of the capital.
BVG carries more than one billion passengers every year. Its corporate design and communication are distinctive — and a benchmark for many other transport companies. BVG may be yellow, but it loves things colorful. And that is exactly what the new sound of the city sounds like.
The core idea behind the new BVG sound is inspired by Berlin itself. People from more than 190 countries call this city home. Berlin stands for a diversity of lifestyles, cultures and gender identities. BVG connects this diversity, accompanies people through the vibrant metropolis and gives them a stage. That is why, for the audio branding, we recorded countless Berlin voices. Sung and spoken. Male, female and transgender.
The “Berlin Schnauze” has this very special charm. We have found an instrument that sounds as rough and warm as the Berlin tone of voice: the bass clarinet. No instrument can intonate the human voice and Berlin slang as well as it can.
The Berlin voices and the bass clarinet are the ingredients for the BVG Brand Music. We modestly call this catchy tune “The Symphony of the Capital”. And from this symphony, the sound logo was derived.
All of Berlin is listening to Philippa. As the new voice of BVG, she now has the say on the capital’s public transport system. Berlin-based voice actor and actress Philippa Jarke stood out from more than a thousand candidates in a multi-stage casting process, impressing with her distinctive voice and strong personality. Over more than 100 hours in the studio, around 4,200 audio files were recorded for every stop and announcement. Even a digital Philippa was developed along the way — the first text-to-speech software that masters the Berlin dialect.
With the aim of creating consistent standards for acoustic passenger information, UI sounds were developed together with the new voice. In vehicles and on platforms, the signal tones were intensively tested and adjusted to work best for all passengers.
For more insights into our project, listen to the Birds’ View podcast. It features many of the people involved in the project, including the voice of Berlin.
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