# My Band's logo (prototypes)



## metalheadpunk (Dec 22, 2010)

Just made some new logos for my band this morning, wanted to see what everyone thought was a cooler one.


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## splinter8451 (Dec 22, 2010)

They are both badass but I think I like the second one better because of the blue lines you have going on.


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## cwhitey2 (Dec 22, 2010)

they are sweet as hell, but the text looks a little weak...see what happens when you make them stand out more


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## thesimo (Dec 22, 2010)

1st one has clear smudge tool usage. Look into the distortion effect in PS using a texture map.

the font also has to go, Looks too rounded off and comic sans-ish.


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## synrgy (Dec 22, 2010)

I dunno if those can qualify as a 'logo'?

The background isn't a logo; It's just a background. That leaves the text for your band name, which is just the name written in a typical font.

Let me do my best to illustrate the difference:

Wu-Tang Clan has a logo:





the Rolling Stones have a logo:





Nine Inch Nails has a logo:





Nirvana, not so much:





Does that make any sense?


I'm not saying the design isn't cool. Just saying I don't see it as being anything you could register as a trademark or official logo.


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## metalheadpunk (Dec 22, 2010)

yeah i guess "logo" was not quite the word i meant. thanks everyone for the input


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## Daemoniac (Dec 23, 2010)

synrgy said:


> Nirvana, not so much:


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## synrgy (Dec 23, 2010)

Demoniac said:


>



Yeah I saw that on my google search too, but I remember those days and that band very well. That smiley face was one t-shirt and a matching sticker. The band never made regular use of it, and the smiley face (including any variations of it) has been around far longer than they ever were. It's just not the same thing; That smiley face was never included in the cover art of any of their studio albums that I'm aware of. Wasn't in Bleach, Nevermind, Incesticide or In Utero that I can recall. I think it ended up on the 'MTV Unplugged' album, but that was it.

I'm not trying to bust anyone's chops over semantics. I guess what I'm saying is that the point of a logo/emblem/design is to be something that pops out at people and identifies an item as being associated with you without you actually having to spell it out for them. I think the art posted in the OP is cool, but if the band's name wasn't spelled out, there'd be nothing for us to take away. That is, unless the band wants to try to appropriate the 'lens flare' as their logo? If they could pull that off, they'd make millions in royalties from JJ Abrams' films alone. 

Think about automobile logos like the Mercedes star, the Mitsubishi diamonds, the Jaguar jaguar.. A name is just a name, but a logo is instantly recognizable without words. Batman's bat logo doesn't say Batman on it. You can know a T-shirt that has no words on it is a Grateful Dead T-shirt if it has the lightning skull or the dancing bears. (Or if it's tie-dye! )

The little apple with a bite out of it tells us something is an Apple product. Without a pair of shoes saying Nike on them, we know they're Nike's because of the 'swoosh' on the side. We know there's a McDonald's coming up when we see the 'golden arches'. From Transformers, think about the logos for Decepticons and Autobots. The Thundercats have a great logo, too. I could go on and on for days. HBO used to be 'Home Box Office', but they made that HBO logo and it just kind of took over after a while.

That's not to say that a logo *can't* be a word spelled out, but there ought to be more to it than just a single truetype font and a couple of photoshop effects thrown on top. Metallica has the pointy M and A, shit tons of metal bands have those illegible bloody/drippy ambigrams, etc. You want to design something that teenagers will be scrawling on their notebooks during class.

For the record, I've always been _really_ terrible when attempting to create logos for my own bands and other projects, so I'm not saying I could do any better.


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## Joeywilson (Jan 1, 2011)

Nutrition Dracula is what I immediatly thought of after reading your name.

Cool backgrounds though!


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## Virtual Scott (Jan 7, 2011)

They aren't bad, but (and speaking as a graphic artist myself) there's a little too much of the "straight-up font" look to them. My advice is to play around with the typeface itself and customize it so it looks, well, customized. The cover itself is nice, dark and abstract (kinda techno!) but the logo should stand alone, if that's the look you require. 

Hope I'm not being harsh, but I think it's a good place to start - what you have there.


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## Slofenwagon (Jan 11, 2011)

Aside from the logo part, i like the first picture set up and how it looks. i agree with Cwhintey2 on the name part, couldmake it like POW!! right in my face and i see both the picture and the name, but when i look at that picture i only see the art and nothing more, sorry to say!


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## fireheart82 (Apr 12, 2011)

liked the first.


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## USMarine75 (Apr 12, 2011)

#1... and what the other people said... clean up the name/logo.


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