Logo Ideas and Development

Wide-Eyed.
Logo Development.

I started to do a mind map of all of the different things that come to mind when you think of 'Wide-Eyed' I always looked at the meaning of the word/phrase coming up with words like amazement, impressionable and new. These are all things that this record company is going to be, therefore the logo need to reflect this. The most important part of this brief as it is now is the logo itself, as this will be used throughout and applied on lots of different merchandise. After doing this I thought it would work better for me to develop digitally. Starting with choosing a typeface.

I wanted to look at how the type would look in both upper and lower case to see which would look most appropriate, I always had all the type next to each other so that I could compare them. What is really important when it comes to the font is making sure it is a commercial font, this is becasue it will be used commercially and not just for personal use, therefore I looked up and found fonts that are commercial and free for this brief. The original idea for the logo is to have 'Wide-Eyed' in text with a small illustration of some sort that will also work on its own or be recognisable to the brand on its own.

Using Arial because it is quite bold and out there and may get more notice and will be more clear, especially if the logo will be on different coloured backgrounds, it wont get lost like a thin font would do. Geometirc shapes will work well for this logo therefore I tried using circles at each on of the type, this also could resemble eyes, like in the name 'Wide-eyed'.

The first logos look slightly too simple and boring, it doesn't look like anything special or anything that people will remember. When I think about 'Wide-eyed' I think about a wonderland, something new and different, something unreal and unseen. This is also the sort of thoughts I got from the client too, therefore I started to look into animals, mystical things and nature. A deer could be a good animal to use, also the antlers would represent a 'W'.

Of these three I prefer the top logo, it is more balanced and looks like it could fit. The 'D' actually has no link to an animal or wonderland, but drawing it using the same kind of look as the 'W' makes it seen like it should be like that.

As the 'D' had no link, putting circles into it as if it were eyes links the 'D' to a face, either this or the 'W' could work on its own as the illustration.

Think looks terrible and wouldn't work at all, experimenting with the 'D' as the face and 'W' as the antlers to make a deer, but it looks really childlike and not professional at all for a record company for underground deep house music.

Trying a few more times with different weights, but I don't think that they are thick or bold enough for the logo that the company/client is looking for. It may get slightly lost in the background of the posters for promotion and different event nights. Although I will be showing them to the client to see what they think, but I'm not sure if this will work.

Starting a fresh with a new idea of taking it back to using cold fonts, something that will stand out. Also looking more into the nature and being fresh, and like a wonderland, this is what interests me most about the brand, being mystical and new.

Taking the 'e's and forming a haze over them, using different opacities and gradients to make it have more dimension. Although this is using grays in the logo which is something I wanted to avoid, as I really believe it would work so much better using black and white.

Going back to the nature idea, and what the idea of a mystery wonderland is. A forest full of trees and leaves is what the image is that I have in my head of a wonderland. Therefore I think that having the illusion of the name 'Wide-eyed' made up of leaves, and drifting away at the end, so that you can still read it but at the same time creating a scene of leaves in the wind. 

After illustrating a leaf I used that as the basis of all of the text, allowing it the get finer towards the end. Trying using both the detailed and the non detailed leaves, found that the non detailed leave logo looks better in my opinion.

Also trying out different ways in which the leaves would blow and come off the type, using both the detailed and non detailed leaves again.

In my opinion this is the best logo and works well for the record company and their character.

Colour Application.

Applying colour to the logo to test out whether it would work on different coloured backgrounds. Using both black and white versions of the last logo on light and dark backgrounds shows how it will be able to work in context.

Whats Next.
Moving on from this point I will be taking all of the different logo ideas to the client to get feedback on them, and see what they prefer and what needs changing on anything. I will then started to create the launch night promotional materials including the t-shirts, sticker, posters and banners after I have finished the development of the logo. Hopefully the client will like what has been produced so far, but I have left plenty of time before the deadline so that whatever changes need to be made, can be.