What Is Sound Symbolism?
Sound symbolism is the phenomenon whereby speech sounds and acoustic qualities carry inherent meaning, independent of any language: sharp, high-frequency sounds feel spiky, fast and small, while rounded, low-frequency sounds feel soft, heavy and large. It explains why certain names, sonic logos and product sounds intuitively feel right or wrong for a brand.
Sound Symbolism in Practice
The landmark demonstration is the bouba/kiki experiment. Wolfgang Köhler first showed the effect in 1929 using invented words, and Vilayanur Ramachandran and Edward Hubbard revived it in 2001 as bouba and kiki. Shown a spiky shape and a rounded blob, the overwhelming majority of people across languages and cultures call the spiky one kiki and the rounded one bouba. The effect shows that sound-to-meaning mapping is not arbitrary, which is why it underpins both brand naming and sonic logo design: plosives and bright, high frequencies suggest speed, precision and smallness, while long vowels, low frequencies and soft consonants suggest comfort, size and warmth. Skilled sonic branding chooses its acoustic ingredients to say the right thing before a single word is understood.
Famous Example
The bouba/kiki experiment (Köhler 1929; Ramachandran and Hubbard 2001)
A
S
- Shepard Tone
- Skeuomorphic Sound
- Sonic
- Sonic Audit
- Sonic Brand Guidelines
- Sonic Branding
- Sonic DNA
- Sonic Identity
- Sonic Logo
- Sonic Palette
- Sonification
- Sound Branding
- Sound Design
- Sound Effect (SFX)
- Sound Symbolism
- Sound Trademark
- Sound-alike
- Soundscape
- Spatial Audio
- Startup Sound
- Stem
- Sting
- Sung Slogan
- Sync Licensing
- Synthetic Voice
A memorable jingle is one tool within a brand’s wider sonic branding.
