Spotify Wrapped: You eagerly anticipate its arrival. You swoon over the in-app experience. You share your results on your socials. You snicker when you see the ads during your commute. But do you know what goes into Wrapped's unique visual identity each year?
Many months ahead of Wrapped's December launch, Spotify's Brand & Creative team comes together to refresh Wrapped as a true campaign and experience that reflects on the year with its own unique look and feel. To get the scoop, For the Record spoke with Spotify's Global Head of Brand Design Rasmus Wangelin. He shared the considerations he and his team put into Wrapped year after year-and what's special about the creative for 2021.
What is your role within the Spotify Brand & Creative team? How does your work throughout the year transition into Wrapped? In collaboration with my team, I oversee Spotify's design work for brand and marketing globally. I run a team of between 15 and 20 designers, art directors, and design directors working alongside me across different initiatives. They can range from brand marketing, music and podcast marketing, art direction and branding, design thought leadership, and problem solving any design-related issues for the company as a whole. We really work and collaborate with almost all parts of Spotify. We're also always proactively working in the background on the brand itself-the rules around it, guidelines, how it comes to life.
Wrapped is probably the biggest project we do every year. And it's not like other projects end-but because we know Wrapped is coming, we have to orchestrate and organize our team to be able to support it properly, alongside everything else that we still have going on.
And funny enough, design explorations for Wrapped actually start in June every year. We have to start that early in order to land the design direction so that we can then build an extensive tool kit that will be used by all of our partners and agencies globally.
What are some of the considerations that go into the Wrapped visual identity each year? I think there are a few different answers here. I think the most important one is that the way we tell the story of music and audio culture every year shifts, right? So we actually want to look at the year that has been and align our way of talking and our ideas with the year. As you can see, every year has a slightly different theme. And it's important for us on the design front to make sure that whatever design we create matches the sentiment of the way we're talking about the year conceptually.
And then outside of that, we actually aspire to create a completely new and fresh articulation of our brand every year. That is Spotify. We're always inventing, trying things, and exploring how we can push the brand. So when you go through the years and you start backtracking on Twitter and Instagram and all these different places that you can post, you can almost visually see what year you're talking about based on the art direction.
Of course we're always thinking about all the obvious things like accessibility and creating a design that feels inclusive enough for everyone to understand it. We work closely with a lot of different teams at Spotify, and we bring them in as stakeholders to make sure that we get feedback from different places with different expertise really early in the process. We're a digital-first company, so we are always thinking about how we can create impactful work across all of our digital touchpoints. So, for example, motion is always a key part of our design.
What are some of the specific elements within the identity for 2021 Wrapped? What should fans look forward to? The graphic element this year for Wrapped is a dynamic thread that ties together all the work. When we started looking at this as a design element, we were super excited because it gives us an additional layer of storytelling in every piece of creative. You can, let's say, have an artist image with copy, but you can also have things inside of this ribbon to enhance the story and go deeper with an insight.
Sometimes we will put words like 2021 or Wrapped, but it also gives us an opportunity to actually lean in even further and have a bit of a dialog with our audience. We've created a set of standard symbols, like a heart or a fire, but we're also giving local markets an opportunity to create their own custom symbols. We had so much fun with this piece when creating the work and we love the idea that some symbols might only be fully understood by a true fan. We're massive music fans ourselves. Everyone who works at Spotify is very in tune with music and music culture, and we want that passion to shine through.
How does the 2021 Wrapped visual identity reflect 2021 as a whole? This year, people around the world started to embrace the unknown in many ways, so we wanted every piece of creative to feel unique. At the same time, consistency is always important for a large campaign like Wrapped, and the playful ribbon does a good job at creating unique articulations while tying together the work as a whole.
This year, as you enjoy the new and familiar elements of the Wrapped in-app experience or explore what the world streamed most this year, make sure to take a look as well as a listen.
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
09/10/2026
September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026
New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
02/10/2026
v1.9.3 introduces AUv3 support
Roland have just released an update that kits their free iPad-based software synth out with AUv3 support, meaning it can now ...
02/10/2026
Dolby Atmos support, AI-powered stem separation & more
The latest version of MOTU's DAW software is now available, and marks a major step forward with t...
02/10/2026
Portable DAC created in collaboration with Steve Levine
British hi-fi experts iFi audio have unveiled a new Master Tuned variant of their praised iDSD GR2 p...
02/10/2026
In our latest blog, Tim Pearson looks at streaming piracy from a different lens, focusing on digital trust, consumer risk, and the future of subscriber protecti...
02/10/2026
Friday 2 October 2026
Crystal Lake, a Friday the 13th' prequel series, com...
02/10/2026
Friday 2 October 2026
Sky VIP helps families celebrate the Christmas season wit...
02/10/2026
How the fertility sector in Ireland remains unregulated
Undercover filming reveals how without proper regulation the promotion of controversial fertility treat...
02/10/2026
Transforming Homes, Transforming Lives
Presenter Baz Ashmawy and his team take on four life-changing builds across Kildare, Limerick, Wicklow and Offaly in the...
01/10/2026
Third collaboration with celebrated composer
Spitfire Audio have once again teamed up with Grammy-nominated composer, producer and technologist BT, creating...
01/10/2026
FL Studio gets dedicated grid controller
Novation have teamed up with FL Studio developers Image-Line to create another dedicated controller for the popular...
01/10/2026
Six new USB interfaces introduced
Universal Audio's USB audio interface line-up has just been refreshed, gaining six new models aimed at musicians, prod...
01/10/2026
Siretta's SNYPER-5G cellular network analyser has been shortlisted for the IoT Global Awards 2026.
The IoT Global Awards recognise products, services and o...
01/10/2026
Mesh Broadcast Services Fits Big-Truck Audio Power into Compact Eclipse Unit with Calrec Argo M Canadian OB company Mesh Broadcast Services has fitted its Eclip...
01/10/2026
X-Rite Pantone Launches Spectura to Advance Connected Color Quality from Lab to ...
01/10/2026
Thursday 1 October 2026
Nominees revealed for 2026 Sky Arts Awards
Current slide, 0 0, undefined1
0
Irish National Opera and Jennifer Walshe: MARS
Jacob Al...
01/10/2026
Vital TV antenna replaced at SudburyHelicopter and broadcast engineers work together to upgrade TV services for 1.5M in the East
--
Share to Linkedin
Octobe...
01/10/2026
Arqiva appoints Simon Duffy as ChairSimon Duffy joins as Chair effective 01 October 2026
--
Share to Linkedin
October 1, 2026
Press Office
01 October 2026...
01/10/2026
Season 4 of the multi-award-winning hit entertainment series The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In is back, serving up another round of unpredictable laughs, unforg...
01/10/2026
New season begins Sunday, 4 October at 6pm on RT lyric fm and RT Listen
RT lyric fm's arts and culture documentary series The Lyric Feature returns on S...
01/10/2026
RT is proud to continue its commitment to supporting and celebrating the arts across Ireland this October, highlighting a vibrant programme of theatre, music, ...
30/09/2026
Add an envelope generator to any plug-in
Sync Audio's latest creation is a handy utility plug-in that can be used to combine and modulate other effects ...
30/09/2026
All-analogue tape-style drive joins Series A
Strymon's reputation was built on their digital knowhow, so many were surprised (and intrigued) when they a...
30/09/2026
Two new expansion packs released
Sonuscore have just introduced two new expansion packs for The Pulse, its production engine instrument for modern cinematic...
30/09/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
30/09/2026
New Solution Expands Harmonic's Network Intelligence Portfolio and Brings Comcast-Developed Fiber Monitoring Technology to Broadband Operators, Providing Re...
30/09/2026
How to Shop Well Now starts Monday at 9.35pm
on RT One and RT Player
On the...
29/09/2026
Two new plug-ins launch alongside updated bundles
Zynaptiq have just announced the launch of two new plug-ins, alongside new and improved versions of two of...
29/09/2026
All-in-one bus processor revealed
Wes Audio's ng product range has come a long way since it was first introduced, and now includes a tasty selection of ...
29/09/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
29/09/2026
NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN OR INTO OR TO ANY PERSON LOCATED OR RESIDENT IN, OR AT ANY ADDRESS IN, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ITS TERRITO...
29/09/2026
We tend to think we live in a digital world, with hopes and fears around artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, data centres and the next big technolo...
29/09/2026
Today, in partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Apple relea...
29/09/2026
Final Cut Camera, the professional filming app for iPhone, receives a major upda...
29/09/2026
RT lyric fm is proud to announce the annual Choirs for Christmas competition callout. Warm up those vocal chords and join us on RT lyric fm for a celebration ...
28/09/2026
EQ plug-in can now be played via MIDI
Scaler Music have recently released a new and improved version of their patented musical EQ plug-in, kitting it out wi...
28/09/2026
New synth developed in collaboration with philterSoup
Boutique effects pedal and Eurorack manufacturer Animal Factory Amps have announced that the new compa...
28/09/2026
Rohde & Schwarz adds an integrated multi-channel pulse analysis option to its FS...
28/09/2026
Monday 28 September 2026
Sky launches Full Fibre 1.6 Gbps for millions of homes
Sky has launched a new Full Fibre 1.6 Gbps product, rolling out from today, gi...
28/09/2026
Arvato Systems Highlights It's Role for Automotive Manufacturers and Suppliers
TISAX
Arvato Systems has successfully completed the TISAX Level 3 assess...
28/09/2026
Crimecall, presented by Carla O'Brien, returns tonight for a brand new series at 9.35pm on RT One and RT Player.
In tonight's episode, alongside appe...
28/09/2026
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS AT THE HEART OF NEW IRISH WRITING
LIVE FROM POETRY IRELAND, DUBLIN AND ON RT RADIO 1 FROM 7PM
DETAILS: www.rte.ie/writing | FOLLOW: #r...
27/09/2026
New compact pedal packs in 120 effects
The latest multi-effects pedal from Boss is a compact unit that promises to give any pedalboard a massive boost in s...
26/09/2026
Launched alongside three new expansion packs
In celebration of their 30th anniversary, Native Instruments have released a major update for their Maschine 3 ...
25/09/2026
Algorithm update & new DVA vibrato-detection engine
A new flagship version of Antares' iconic pitch-correction software has arrived, and along with a co...
25/09/2026
New flagship unit to arrive in early 2027
Two notes Audio Engineering have revealed that a new and improved version of their hugely popular reactive load bo...
25/09/2026
AI-free mixing tool gets an upgrade
Launched in October 2025, Tim Exiles Finalist is an algorithmic mixing tool that's been designed for those who don&#...
Spotify Wrapped: You eagerly anticipate its arrival. You swoon over the in-app experience. You share your results on your socials. You snicker when you see the ads during your commute. But do you know what goes into Wrapped's unique visual identity each year?
