Band logos, anyone?

Curtybob · #1 02-13-2011, 10:19 AM

Ok, so... I just took on the job of making a logo for my gigging band. The band's name is 525 (named after the county road the frontman lives on). The original was a picture of the county road sign... the signs here are blue with yellow characters.

I drew out the logo the old fashioned way:

Then scanned it, and toyed with the levels a bit to make it look "inked" rather than pencil drawn:

And finally, I used the brush tool, set to color burn (50% opacity, 100% flow) to add the 2 colors. Then, I just popped it out and put it over a quick gradient.

It was a fun project, and now I am in the middle of making a 3' x 4' tall version from 4" styrofoam. I will have that all finish sanded, painted, and ready to go behind the drummer on a stand for our first show, this weekend.

Muzoid · #2 02-13-2011, 10:25 AM

Very cool.....Awesome job!

Can't wait to see the finished version of the styro.

I'm a graphic designer myself, so I'm usually the one that gets to do all the band designs.

Kudos on a job well done.

Exploiter8 · #3 02-13-2011, 10:27 AM

Cool! Kind of like "Bedrock meets Rock & Roll.

X8

Unrepresented · #4 02-13-2011, 10:48 AM

Dig it!

Curtybob · #5 02-13-2011, 03:42 PM

Here is the logo for my other band, Bible Belt Killers. It's a bit on the gory side, but we were going for a pixelated Nintendo vibe.

MNAirHead · #6 02-13-2011, 07:01 PM

neat foam thing.

Curtybob · #7 02-21-2011, 02:05 AM

So, I had my triumphant return to the stage on saturday night, and I brought the foam logo. I had designed it to sit upon 2 straight mic stands, right behind the drummer... but, the stage was tight, so we decided to nix it for this show. The club owner saw it sitting backstage, and brought it out to the floor during the set, and put it in front of the house subs (but wasnt as careful when he set the top on to get it lined up right... lol). This pic was after the show, while we were tearing down.

This pic is untouched, other than a quick resize. The paint was just weird, and reflected light in a cool way in pics. I painted a basecoat of latex drywall primer, then a coat of white gloss enamel. Then, I busted out the old airbrush from my model building days, and sprayed the chrome yellow and pearl blue acrylic paint, with the black being the final touches.

matt descending · #8 02-23-2011, 12:58 PM

Looks awesome in the pic, a long way from the pencil drawing. I like the idea of a foam prop that sits on a Mic stand!

Curtybob · #9 02-23-2011, 01:48 PM

Yeah, it worked great in practice. As soon as the drummer realized he'd set up too far back to use it, he was gonna scoot up... but we only had another 15 minutes to soundcheck.

It is an easy material to work with, even though it is not the most durable stuff around. I only had 4 hours of work invested in that prop, including paint ...I painted 4 coats of heavy primer, incase I decided to go with a solvent-based paint. Almost any solvent will melt the styrofoam.

But yeah... took about 30 minutes to saw out the shape with a drywall saw, another 20 to draw out the details with a magic marker, an hour to "scratch in" all the details and sand the face smooth (just sandpaper... you can get a shiny smooth finish, or stop a little short and get the "stone" look with a heavier grit paper). The rest was paint time (not including drying time... it took a while in between coats of primer).

BritPicker · #10 02-23-2011, 02:55 PM

That's very good and imaginative. You have some high-level making skills there.

How strong is the styrofoam? It looks beautiful, but how well will it stand up to transportation?

Curtybob · #11 02-23-2011, 03:01 PM

Admittedly, you gotta be careful with it. It's stronger than I would've thought, but not so strong that I'd let just anyone load in or load out. To aid with transportation, I made it in 2 pieces (horizontal split at the middle... hidden in a "block" joint).

My next move is gonna be to mount it on some 3/8" plywood for strength (cut to be hidden, obviously), and to make a more solid way to keep it locked together when it is stacked up.

rtslinger · #12 02-23-2011, 03:05 PM

Very nice what made you chose Form?

Curtybob · #13 02-23-2011, 03:11 PM

I am a carpenter by trade, and I work around it alot. It is used as a foundation and insulator for a system that goes on the outside of commercial buildings (Dryvit, EIFS, etc...). Usually, our company's plasterers do this stuff, but I have helped here and there when carpentry was slow. That's where I saw how easy it was to work into shape, and I have used it for various things in the past few years. I even used it as a mold to make the fiberglass hoodscoop I have on my computer. lol

pklima · #14 02-24-2011, 06:10 AM

I like logos that are physical, three-dimensional objects and not just images. One of my singers makes ceramic art stuff, and she put some beads she made into a logo. Not to be outdone, I also made one from freshly picked garlic plants. Those were just temporary ones that we photographed and then disassembled, though. A big styrofoam logo that you can take to gigs is awesome.

Néal Zheimer · #15 02-24-2011, 07:15 AM

In the picture, it really looks like it has been added with photoshop. Looks great actually. Nice job.

prd004 · #16 02-24-2011, 07:20 AM

How do you guys get the "BIG" pictures to post?
All I can get is thumbnails.

rtslinger · #17 02-24-2011, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curtybob

I am a carpenter by trade, and I work around it alot. It is used as a foundation and insulator for a system that goes on the outside of commercial buildings (Dryvit, EIFS, etc...). Usually, our company's plasterers do this stuff, but I have helped here and there when carpentry was slow. That's where I saw how easy it was to work into shape, and I have used it for various things in the past few years. I even used it as a mold to make the fiberglass hoodscoop I have on my computer. lol

That is so cool I would have never thought of using form for something like this very innovative. You should see if you could patten the idea and sell logos to other bands RTS

Nakedfish · #18 02-24-2011, 07:36 AM

Great job with the foam logo. It does remind me of 'Tap' though.

HighPockets · #19 02-24-2011, 08:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nakedfish

Great job with the foam logo. It does remind me of 'Tap' though.

+1
When I saw the foam Stonehenge immediately came to mind.

dj150888 · #20 02-24-2011, 08:19 AM

Maybe its just me, but I think the idea of having the road sign for your logo is way more badass. You've done a great job with making the new one, but I think theres something pretty cool about using a big ol' road sign.