Designing Apple Music's attention-maxxing playlist
Foreground is a speculative Apple Music playlist for music that won't sit politely in the background. It's anti-elevator music for the creative who thrives on high energy to create. If elevator music lowers your heart rate, these tracks make you feel every BPM.
The playlist demands your attention, so the visual identity had to as well. In a world oversaturated with content fighting for attention, we asked: "What demands more attention than the human face?" The human face staring directly at you. So we let this be central to the identity.
With a wink to the AI craze, we dipped each artist in the same synthetic polish flooding the feeds. I called it "attention-maxxing": hyperreal enough to unsettle, beautiful enough to keep you there.
The result balances restraint with intensity in a disciplined system of fluorescent, circadian-rhythm-disrupting typography, color, and composition, built to frame imagery that's anything but quiet.
Client: Personal, 2026
Art Direction & Design: Jose Murillo
Playlist Strategy: Tola Oseni
Concept Development: Jose Murillo, Tola Oseni, Luis Pinto, Lukman Ipese
Mentorship & Feedback: Carlos Bocai, Julia Aguiar, Zuzanna Rogatty
