Category: North America

For refugees suffering from PTSD, ordinary sounds can be powerful triggers. That’s why we leveraged our expertise to help people suffering from PTSD through Sound Affects, a library: a collection of Foley sounds designed to support healing through the power of sound.

Transforming Sound into Healing

The beeping of a microwave, the ringing of an alarm, or the crash of glass can bring back memories of bomb sirens, fleeing tanks, or other traumatic experiences. To address this, Sound Affects works with Foley artists and sound engineers to create an online library of everyday sounds that can unexpectedly cause pain and distress. By using common items like bread makers, electric razors, or even celery, we reproduce the sounds of war and conflict, highlighting how mundane noises can become haunting reminders for trauma survivors.

From Awareness to Action

The library not only raises awareness but also supports those affected. All funds generated go directly to NGOs dedicated to helping PTSD victims worldwide.

Reimagining Trauma through Sound Design

Reproducing these complex, evocative sounds requires artistic precision. Foley artists use techniques such as looping, pitching, adding reverb, overlaying, filtering frequencies, and speeding up sounds to recreate the auditory essence of traumatic events. For example, the gust of a gunshot might be captured by the slam of a washing machine door, while the rhythmic hum of a bread maker can evoke the sound of helicopter blades.

Through creative exploration, everyday objects become instruments for storytelling and empathy, transforming sound into a tool for awareness and support.

Compassion International serves children in 28 developing nations in Asia, Africa and Latin and South America. The organization has gone through a rebrand effort, resulting in a switch from a brand that builds ‘our’ organization to a brand that inspires and enables a way of living out compassion.

Many international charities are better known than Compassion International. To standout and build a stronger brand equity Compassion International worked with Sixième Son to create a complete and flexible sonic identity system to use throughout communications.

To promote charitable giving, Compassion produces a lot of video content with a wide emotional range. The sonic identity needed to be flexible enough to bring out the right emotion in each story while supporting the same brand image. The music needed to be sympathetic while also being energetic enough to compel the audience to respond with action. The Sonic Identity also needed to embody a special set of brand values: Humanity/Compassion, Energy/Empowerment and Joy.

To develop a unique identity for Compassion International, Sixième Son set out to create music that felt timeless. We sought to be warm and human without sacrificing the ability to stand out from the crowd. The instruments and even syllables were chosen to feel as if they could come from right around the corner, but not to sound native to any particular part of the world. For all the strategy captured in the music, you can still sense simplicity and spontaneity.

Because Compassion International produces content with a wide emotional range, a single sonic logo could not be made to fit all. Instead, system of sonic logos, sonic intros and musical transitions were created that share the same brand melody but evoke a range of different emotions.

The sonic identity was launched in a series of moving brand films. The brand melody and children’s vocals create an authentic and compelling music score that supports the story and the brand.