Fieldnote FM

Context

Fieldnote FM is a concept: a fictional, volunteer-run community station broadcasting local shows, live sets and neighbourhood news.

Challenge

Community radio is made by dozens of people with different tastes, so the identity had to be strong enough to hold together posters, stickers, show artwork and a website without one designer controlling everything.

It also needed to feel live — radio is happening now, not archived.

Direction

The logo is a broadcast sampled into nine rounded bars. In print the bars are fixed; on screen they move with the station’s signal, so the logo itself shows the station is on air.

A very heavy display face gives volunteers something bold to set big, and a single cobalt makes anything instantly recognisable as Fieldnote, whatever else is on the page.

Rationale

The system is deliberately simple to use: cobalt, the bars, the wordmark. Anyone can make a show poster that looks like it belongs.

On the website, the live player is always the first thing on the page, and the schedule is a scannable grid where the current show is the only thing in cobalt.