Logo Design and Developments/Drafts

I felt it is imperative in order to market the band as a brand to design possible logos in order to promote the band on my ancilliary texts and give them a brand identity, trying to keep the design somewhat simple and maybe adhere to conventions to prevent being ostentatious/pretentious which would give the band bad publicity. It is also important for me to bear in mind that the logo must be effective aesthetically, incorporate some conventions, include a bold typography that clearly signifies they are a rock band, and the logo must be of a size that means it will easily fot within the confines/dimensions of profile pictures on social media - as this is now how bands go about promoting their music. It is famously documented that Arctic Monkeys promoted the entirety of their music through the use of MySpace, through fans sharing their music online rather than the band promoting it, which is why aspects of promoting the band on social media should not be overlooked.

These are the provisional designs for my logos, I feel I have designed them in a way that makes them reflective of the band (taking into account their brand image and the music itself). This is why I have chosen to place the band name in clear, bold and simple typography across the head stock of a Gibson Les Paul guitar - this form of iconography works well is it is reminiscent of the type of image Guns N Roses represented. It also happens to be the model of guitar played by the lead guitarist of the band which would find favour with the artist, but it also signifies that the band are a hard rock band as it is clear through the logo that they utilise such instruments to create their music. This makes the logo incisive, almost concise - it expresses the essential features of the band through one logo which will give them identity. 

In terms of semiotics, this logo seeks to reach its audience through the use of iconography as it is essentially an icon: it bears a real picture of a guitar that has been adapted to display the band's name. This is why I chose to use a guitar for the band's logo - I wanted to make use of iconography in the band's work and therefore I have used something real (qualifying it as an icon) but edited it to make it slightly more abstract. This logo will probably find favour with a niche audience who play guitar themselves and so will recognise the importance of the logo and it's suitability which will entice them immediately if they enjoy hard rock/indie rock music i.e. this logo would bear significant discrepancies if it was used to represent/promote an R'n'B artist.Therefore, it is immediately decoded and given meaning by those who recognise what it is.

This logo is a variation on the first one, it is slightly more detailed, however it compromises boldness and size of the typography which could make it easy to be overlooked and difficult to decipher the name of the band on posters/adverts/digipaks etc. This is why I will probably not opt for this logo to promote my ancillary texts as it does not have enough of an impact and it is not clear enough that it is a band logo it looks more like an image with not enough meaning - this is why I am either going to opt for a good aesthetically pleasing typography or use the first