Be a Band Logo Creator
What better way is there for your work to become well-known than being a band logo designer? Unlike making a logo for some teeny-tiny nearly-unknown web design company, a band logo has a pretty decent chance of gaining some recognition. So if you become a band symbol creator, you’ve got a good chance at being recognized for your work. Unless, of course, you make a logo for a lousy little band in Tumbleweed who only gets gigs to perform for the hearing-impaired senior citizens.
Band logo design is not that different from regular logo design. Both of these graphic design jobs are executed in the same manner; a clear symbol that properly represents the essence of the band, a proper font for the band’s name, or a combination of both. As the artist hired to undertake this task, you will have to figure out how to effectively sum up the band’s name, genre, and essence in that one little picture, and it has to be unique while being easily readable. Maybe once the band achieves international fame, you can butcher the logo into something completely indecipherable that only the fans will recognize. But until that point, make sure people can read the band name.
If you can’t think of a good original symbol to use, there’s no shame in using an existing symbol with a little design tweaking. For example, a fantasy rock band that called Jupiter could use the planetary symbol that looks like a curved number four and make it look as if it’s made out of chrome and surrounded by stars. These symbols are not copyrighted because they are typically universal, so use these if you have to. But for goodness sake, do not use clip art.
Also like regular logo design, you have to use proper artistic elements in the design of a band’s logo, because it may be the logo that makes or breaks their dreams of stardom. That being said, if you’re designing an identity for a death metal band, you probably should not use delicate cursive fonts, soft edges and subdued colors. Who would take a metal band seriously with that kind of logo representing them? As a band logo creator, it’s your duty to first research bands with sounds similar to the band you’re creating a band logo for and studying what kind of logos they’ve got going on for their image. Pull inspiration from these other bands, but do not directly copy. Believe me, someone will notice if you make an exact copy of that three-eyed cat from another band’s logo for the insignia you’re making. To top that off, it will probably be someone who will know how to sue you and the band for copyright infringement.
And if you’re one of the band members, don’t try to be stingy and save money by doing the logo yourself, unless you have some semblance of design skills. Creating your bands identity through symbolism is incredibly important to getting you recognized.
Another thing you could try when it comes to band logo design is create software that you could sell to other musicians and designers. Gather together a team of software designers, graphic designers, and probably game designers and start putting together some kind of band logo maker software. Get the designers to create a bunch of generic artwork for different music genres, use the game designers for 3D effects, and the software designers will piece it all together and put it on a compact disk. And then you sell the software and make tons of money off it. The result would be a bunch of artists losing work and a bunch of upcoming bands that all coincidentally have the exact same graphics in their logos because they all bought a band logo creator to save on hiring an artist.
Posted in: Jobs for Graphic Designers
