Contemporary Music Logo

chr.s's picture

A friend of mine, one of a three-piece electronic music group (influences seem to range from dubstep to up-beat pop... that ilk) asked me to have a go at a logo.

He specified letterforms that were of a simpler geometry and added that he wanted it to appeal to male listeners from 16 years old to possibly early 30s.

I wanted to create something reasonably dynamic, given the nature of the music, and try to evoke a sense of movement, which lead me to this current design. It contains a very subtle nod back to the once-emerging dance scene, here in Manchester (maybe not even just this city), but without overtly clinging on to the sentiment.

I'm reasonably pleased with it so far - a rarity for me - but no doubt there are elements I've overlooked and not considered.

Any thoughts are gratefully received.

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eliason's picture

I don't know if I see "movement," though I do see energy and I think the slashes play off the diagonals of the letters in an appealing way. At what sizes will it appear? At small sizes those fine lines may get lost.

chr.s's picture

I don't know if I see "movement," though I do see energy

Fair point - I wrote that in haste - it's certainly more an attempt at dynamism than movement.

As for its intended use, I think initially it'll be for digital promotion. Then, as soon as they begin to tour (they've recently been booked to support a major artist for his UK dates) it will move to print.

It did cross my mind that the diagonals may not suit smaller sizes, but probably not significantly enough until you pointed it out. I'm not averse to thickening them a touch to suit, or entrusting them with two (or more) versions.

Frode Bo Helland's picture

Very d&b/jungle-ish. C and the IZ combination doesn’t work that well IMO, and the N diagonal might benefit from a 90 degree angle between it and the other diagonals. Pay attention to spacing!

chr.s's picture

Thanks for the input frode frank.

I think I know what you're saying about those particular sets of 'cuts' - they're not ideal - I just wanted to get a sense of whether you guys felt it worked as an idea. There will certainly be composition revisions.

But about the spacing; I wasn't completely sure how to approach this.
The design was built on a grid, with the strokes being 1 unit wide and, when unaltered, each glyph is roughly 1 unit apart, as below:

Although it's not perfect I think it's reasonably close in this way. But obviously as cuts are made the spacing increases in areas - most notably between the Z and E. I wasn't sure whether people's eyes would automatically fill-in the missing areas and mentally construct an image roughly as shown, or whether I should treat each shape as new and then space it accordingly - possibly risking letters virtually 'bumping' into one another. I do trust your opinion on this, but I'd like to know if others felt the same way, as though there were too much space in areas, rather than imagining extended letters, spaced as illustrated.

I tried a 45° diagonal on the N, but wasn't sure if it would make that letter too wide, I may well retry it.

chr.s's picture

If anyone's still interested, attached is a recent revision.

I think the spacing issue is on the way to being rectified, although if anyone has any further input regarding this, I'd be happy to hear.

However, a 45° diagonal within the N just doesn't seem to sit well.

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