LO2: Sketches and Mockups of Potential Logos and Products

SKETCHES

Logo Ideas

Please click on the images to enlarge and read my annotations about design rationale.

Product Ideas

Poster

Flyer

The flyer is a smaller and more compact version of the poster. It will be something that readers will hold in their hand, rather than seeing it from further away. Therefore it has only the key information on it and it contains more graphics than the poster, such as the large guitar and lightning bolt, to make it attractive and interesting.

T-shirt

Mug

Cap

Please click on the images to enlarge and read my annotations about design rationale.

Here you can see me sketching my poster and flyer:

MOCKUPS

Below are annotated mockups of some of my best sketches which give an idea of how my final

logo/products might look.

 

LO2: House Style Ideas

Colours

The main colours that are a part of my house style are yellow and grey, with splashes of red and black here and there to add boldness. This is because steel is grey (the first part of my festival's name), and the "thunder" section of the name will be made up of  bright yellow lightning bolts. The bright yellow colour has connotations of energy, speed, adrenaline and electricity, which are all key elements of a rock festival, while the grey colour connotes the cool, no-nonsense attitude that goes along with the genre. The reds and blacks (which might be used on a building or an instrument on my promotional material, for instance) are deeper colours and add more interest and style to the package, while still having those rebellious, no-nonsense, energetic connotations which are synonymous with the genre.

Images

There are certain images which I will use as part of my house style too - they will be seen across my promotional package. These are items like guitars, drums, drum sticks, cymbals and lightning bolts. The instruments that I mentioned are almost always used in rock bands and so are synonymous with the genre - perfect for a promotional package for a rock festival. Also, as I have previously mentioned on my blog, lightning bolts are very commonly seen in in rock bands' artwork and rock festivals' promotional material. This is because of their connotations which work perfectly with the genre and target audience (males aged 18-30 in my case) - energy, power and electricity.

In my next post which contains sketches of potential logos and products, you will be able to see where I have placed elements of my house style that I have mentioned here. I have placed annotations on the sketches which tell you when something is a part of the house style, and how it relates to the target audience and genre of my festival.

LO2: Font Style Ideas

Below are some fonts that I found on dafont.com, which I thought might work well for designing different versions of my "Steel Thunder" logo. Obviously, since everything I create must be original, I will be manipulating any of these fonts that I use in Adobe Illustrator when making my logo.

I like this font because it looks like it is made up of lightning bolts, which is something that I planned for the "thunder" section of my logo. I could definitely utilise the "T" in this font, because it is pretty much exactly how I want the T to look in one of my logo designs - I could bring down the "T" of the word "steel" to begin the word "thunder".

I like this font because it is bold and solid, two things that I was looking for for the "steel" part of my logo. This is because steel is strong and solid, and I wanted the font for the word to reflect these properties. I would colour the text grey also, to make it look more like steel.

This font is another which I could possibly use for the word "thunder". It isn't quite as hard-hitting as the Thundercover font, but it still has a style that represents lightning and power. I think it could work quite well for the "thunder" word in one of my logo designs. I might combine it with the A Love of Thunder font.

Lemon Milk is another font which I think could be used for the word "steel". This is because it is bold and solid, in a similar way to A Love of Thunder. It has slightly sharper edges however, and this might work well for a more powerful and striking version of my logo. I would colour it grey to represent steel.

Finally, this Road Rage font is one that I thought could be used for the "thunder" word. This is because it has spiky edges everywhere and the text is generally very rough and rugged. It has connotations of rebellion, power, energy and electricity, perfect for the genre of the festival and therefore for the logo. I might use only certain letters of this font, however, as it might be overpowering if I use it for too much of the logo.

Here are some examples of how I have manipulated some of these fonts in Illustrator:

Road Rage

Lemon Milk

Thundercover

LO2: Audience Profile

LO2: Mind Maps of Ideas

Product Ideas

 The above mind map shows ideas for the type of product I could include in my promotional package. I have decided to make a poster, flyer and ticket, as well as a T-shirt, mug and cap for merchandise. This is because I feel these pieces of merchandise have the room for me to place unique and interesting designs on them.

Potential Names

The above mind map shows potential names that I could use for my festival. It would take place in Sheffield, so I tried to create puns using the word "steel" for names.

In the end, I decided on the name "Steel Thunder". This is because the "steel" part of it relates to Sheffield, the "Steel City", while it also has connotations of strength, power and endurance, all classic elements of the rock/indie rock genre. The "thunder" section of the name has connotations of electricity, speed and power, which are also classic elements of the rock genre. Together, the two words create a name which sounds good and has many meanings.

Mood Board

Above is a mood board showing names and logos of other rock/indie rock festivals that have taken place. A common theme is that of a city, for example, "Sounds from the Suburbs" and "FirstCity Festival". Also, lighting bolts are used commonly, such as in the SunStock and Shaky Knees logos. This is because the lightning bolt is an icon of the rock genre, connoting energy, power and electricity. I will try to take inspiration from these logos when designing mine.

LO2: My Production

My graphic design promotional campaign is going to be for a Sheffield-based rock/indie rock festival.  I will be producing a poster, flyer and ticket for my festival, as well as a set of merchandise - this will be composed of a T-shirt, a mug and a cap.

You can see my ideas for all of this in my next few posts.