Sony's Music Timeline
To celebrate 125 years of musical history, Sony has unveiled a large-scale graphic installation that is as much of a treat for typography lovers as music lovers. The Sony Music Timeline features the names of nearly 1000 musical artists set in a huge variety of type styles over 150 square meters of wall space in Sony’s London office on Derry Street.

Made entirely of cut vinyl, the timeline was designed by Alex Fowkes, winner of Creative Review’s “One to Watch” in 2011. The names of the muscial artists are arranged chronologically by decade in 54 columns, each 2 meters tall.

The installation also features iconic representations of the evolution of recording technology, from the earliest cylinders to the latest digital devices, and everything in between.

Check out the following video and look for your favorite musicians (and fonts) as you see the Sony Music Timeline take shape first in Adobe Illustrator CS6, and then on the walls of Sony’s office.
Sony Music Timeline from Rob Antill on Vimeo.
This article was last modified on July 29, 2021
This article was first published on November 14, 2012
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