Doc · Sonic Branding

VanMoof

An internal playground, asset library and test suite for the audio of the VanMoof e-bike. It is where every bike sound, from a single bell tap to the full sound logo, gets designed, organised, auditioned and validated before it ships. Audio meets creative coding.

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Project info

Year

2025

About this project

VanMoof asked THNDR to give their e-bikes a voice, and that meant far more than a single bell. It needed a full sonic identity: a startup sound that doubles as the brand's sonic logo, and a Dynamic Bell that can gently whisper 'I'm here' or escalate to a full theft alarm depending on the moment. More than 400 sound variations were explored, many built from the bike itself, like the whirr of the tires or a drumstick dragged across the spokes.

This project is the engine room behind that work. It is an internal playground, asset library and test suite where every sound gets designed, organised, auditioned against real city noise and validated before it ever ships to a bike. Audio meets creative coding.

An internal sound lab

This is a tool I built for THNDR: a playground, asset library and test suite for the sound of the VanMoof bike. It is where the new audio identity gets shaped, from a single bell tap to the full sound logo, and where every sound is checked before it reaches the hardware. The tool itself stays internal, its URL is private.

Dynamic bells

The bell is not one sound but a system. Each variation has its own push, loop and release timing, plus choke and delay, and can be auditioned in different environments. Dozens of bells sit side by side so they can be compared and tuned fast.

Speaker simulator

Before a sound ever reaches the bike, the speaker simulator runs it through impulse responses of the real hardware, from a direct-speaker capture to the rider's perspective, so you hear how it will actually sound out on the street.