Music Branding

In Music Branding we are developing a brand identity for a musician that we have either found (and must be relatively unknown) or made up. I have a fondness for electronic music and because my digital skills are better than my hand drawn, I decided to do an electronic-techno band styled in a similar way to Daft Punk. I am a fan of music posters that use glowing effects and geometric figures, giving a very Tron-esque feel and decided to try my hand at it.

Logo Design:

The first phase of the project was to develop a name and a logo. The name I chose was something that just came into my head: "Deft Adept." A silly name when you think about it, as it essentially means skilled at being talented. I picked it because it sounded neat, not really what it meant, I'm sure plenty of bands are like that.

Working on the logo, I realized that the words I used for the name were adjectives, not nouns and didn't really have much to make a symbol out of. The only personality I could come up with that was Deft or Adept was a Ninja, but Ninjas were already an over played phenomenon back in the mid 2000s.

I decided to go a purely typographic route. I realized that the initials of Deft Adept, D and A could be abstracted into simple Triangle forms. From there I played on mirroring the shapes but still letting the letterform be recognizable.

The winning concept was actually one of the first ones I developed; the one in the top left.

I played with some more variations here. I had this idea to cut the triangle form into pieces, and then I realized that I actually had managed to make an "A" letter form appear in the bottom right half triangle shapes, where the A was supposed to be to begin with. It was an interesting idea but not one I had managed to simplify enough to be easily understandable.

Poster Sketches:

My current assignment is developing a poster that will serve to advertise a Deft Adept concert or event, or simply be a promotion. These are some of the first concepts I came up with. Extruding and then giving a perspective to my initial logo proved to be an interesting piece in itself that I will probably keep for something in the future.

I have the event take place at Musikfest, a popular festival in Bethlehem PA where they block off entire city blocks to make room, which is near the city of Easton PA, where my fictional band resides. Musikfest happens during the month of August and I decided to let them perform on my birthday, which also had the happy accident of being 8 9 10 this year.

Playing around with repetition. I like how the spirals swirl into each other.

Color concept. This spiral shape is supposed to abstract things like a record player, a knob that gets turned on dj equipment, or sound waves or a pulse of some kind.

Experimenting with glowing effects. Going for a Tron kinda feel.