Band Project - Enlightened by Animals - 2D

Choosing an animal: Originally I began research into animals associated with enlightenment, the results showing Elephants, Peacocks, Lions and Horses. I then changed my idea to looking into animals that wouldn't typically be associated with such a positive outlook to create a contradiction between the band's name and their logo. For this I looked at the Greenland Shark, a shark with a long life-span infrequently spotted due to the extreme depths it can reach; far from enlightenment in this case meaning far from literal light, beneath the oceans surface. 

​The animal I ended up choosing as the main symbol of my band was the hyena, which are often depicted as scavengers in documentaries; far from enlightenment in the case of the hyena would refer to human perception of the animal, in some cultures they are even thought to have a level of influence over people's spirits. 

I began the process of refinement of some of my initial sketches, developing more concrete possibilities for what a logo for the band could look like. The use of a yellow circle behind the animals head was meant to evoke imagery of a halo, further implying the concept of enlightenment.

I much prefer the silhouette design (top row, left image), as I feel it functions best as a logo out of my ideas so far, with it being both simplistic and replicable. I also began some limited experimentation with the lettering and font for the band, I found that lettering with sharper points reflected the idea I wanted to convey with the band, a contrast from the softness the word 'enlightenment' implies.

I continued with this idea for the font of the sharper points being a contrast to the idea of enlightenment, however I now plan to have a slight difference in how 'Enlightened by' and 'Animals' are written (as shown by the rough sketch to the left), where the harsher more jagged lettering is only used for the word 'Animals.' I also plan to add a claw mark through the letter 'A'. 

Refined Ideas:

I experimented with some digital development of these designs:

Merchandise ideas for the band, with a focus on clothing:

Refined Logos

While I initially struggled with a genre for my band, it was suggested to me during group crit that the genre ‘folk rock’ might fit with the logo designs I had done so far.

Colour Variations

Text Variations:

After a feedback session with a tutor I was encouraged to develop a second idea for this project, this time focusing on a different genre. It was suggested that I look at a more colourful or “childish” design, and try different ways of evoking animal imagery within a text logo.

I decided to return to my original idea, the ‘folk-rock’ genre, rather than the second idea I briefly looked into, and began looking at different font types to use as a potential text logo. Experimenting with the font for to my band:

The text logo I liked more:

I also created another hand-drawn font:

Finalised logo, in colour and black and white:

Finalised text versions of the logo:

I also made mockups of merch using these designs on the website canva: