A friend of mine from high school, who also happens to be a very talented musician, is in a new band called Exceptet.
She asked me to design a logo for the band, and I gladly accepted! Below are the revisions we went through to come up with the final design:
The first idea I had was to feature each band member’s instrument, since it’s something that makes the group unique. I wasn’t sure how they felt about working with color, so I did this sketch in black and white.
Ultimately, the band members wanted something more abstract. They wanted to feature the colorful designs that were painted onto their faces in a recent photoshoot. So I drew those.
Just for fun, I overlaid silhouettes of the instruments on the painted designs. Obviously, it wasn’t very successful! Trying to combine multiple ideas into one mega idea usually doesn’t make for good design.
For this round, the band asked if I could bump up the vibrancy of the colors, to more closely match the photos.
They also asked if I could try combining the shapes in a different way, rather than all in a line. This one looks a little too much like ship sails to me.
We all preferred the simple line-up, so we went back to that. They also asked if I could go even brighter with the colors. So I sent this back.
…And then they asked if I could go even a little brighter. This was a good challenge for me! Vibrant color palettes do not come naturally to me, but I think this design looks much better with the richer color palette.
Finally, I tried the new colors over an off-white background, because sometimes white is boring.
If you live in Brooklyn and get the chance, you should go see Exceptet! They’re a cool bunch.