2D Project

Project Brief
Design a band mark/logo for the given band name using different techniques and approaches
Band name given for project: Tartan Dots
Band theming and genre
The band name doesn't immediately give off any overwhelming themes nor lean into a particular genre. Would like to explore indie alternative, but also look into possibly electronic and house (or even possibly a combination of the three).

Jump to final outcome

Research

21st Century Band Logos
The XX (Alternative).
Clean Bandit (Dance).
Rudimental (Dance). 
Daft Punk (Electronic).
Two Door Cinema Club (Alternative). 
Alt-J (Rock). 
Lost Frequencies (Dance/Techno)
Marshmello (Electronic).
Eminem (Rap).
Zhu (Electronic)
Out of all the band logos, Clean bandit and Marshmello are the strongest in their respective genres. Both dance and electronic bands and artists tend to lean on text heavy logo, meaning there isn't a lot of comparison for the two. Marshmello is technically a solo artist, but he has a cracking logo that rivals a lot of band logos.
Iconic 20th Century Band logos
ABBA (Pop). Logo designed by ​Rune Söderqvist.
Run DMC (Hip-hop). 
Red Hot Chilli Peppers (Alt Rock). 
The Doors (Rock).
Genre Decision
Initially was set on going with the alternative genre as my band's theme, however I've decided to use EDM as the main genre. Whilst there's very little imagery in many band logos of this genre, the text and overall artistic direction tends to be clean and modern, which lends into my style more. Tartan dots doesn't really give off any overarching themes, so it's perfect to have a little fun with. As more than one final logo design is expected, I'll explore the many varieties of EDM with it being a very broad genre.
The Music
Setting the mood, a list of popular dance/electronic/house songs, current and past (including artwork):
A closer look at the electronic duo: Disclosure
Disclosure's logo artwork is unique in that whilst their main logo (the name) has fairly had a consistent look across any of the artwork, it's not what catches your attention. What sets disclosure apart is the use of 'the face', a mark that is applied to the faces of either themselves or other artists on the cover. 
Disclosures brand image centres around 'the face', applying it to various other media, including commercial photography of the two:
Across social media:
The original face graphic was created for Disclosure by Roxie Pandora, with the majority of their successive artwork created by the design studio Studio Moross
The face used within live performances,
​animated:
Disclosure art direction:
https://www.studiomoross.com/casestudy/disclosure-art-direction/
Logo Designs
Logos from: Logo Modernism, Taschen
Aaron Draplin, Logo Design:

IDEAS

Initial Sketches
Decided early on that any logo text used in the design needs to be abbreviated to 'TRTN:' or 'TRTN' with some dot design incorporated. Tartan dots just doesn't fit the genre of music well, to the point where it would have a negative effect (possibly seen as uncool, or even boring).
Rendered Logos
From the developed drawings, the last two pages contain most the ideas i want to experiment with. Ideally if time permits, would like to render most if not all of them (the more choice the better).
Colour Palettes
Setting a colour palette this early on in development would likely hinder logo development, so decided against working to a set colour palette. An ideal logo would not be restricted by a pallete, and should be able to work regardless of colour.

Analogue development

Wooden Dominos
Had a pack of wooden dominos laying dormant at home; perfect for this project. Thought it would be too heavy with them being really 'blocky', however the lighting and paper choice worked in the woods favour. Cleverly made the end points as blank, and couldn't not match up the dominos as if they were being played in a game. 
Swizzles Love Hearts
Love Hearts are the perfect shape for this project, working nicely with a few of the ideas and the word 'dot' in the band name. Once over love hearts had a prominent red border around the edge, which unfortunately is no longer the case. The effect works but I think more could be done with it, possibly digitally.
Editing the gradient map and using the channel mixer allowed for better colour extraction across the image. Could have used posterisation but this tends to destroy fine detail, replacing with jagged edges. The gradient map edit preserves this better.
Heinz Tomato Sauce
Probably the weirdest of the ideas; a tube of tomato ketchup sitting on the desk... uses? squirt onto some ugly yellow paper.
Excusing the smell left afterwards, it worked out better than I thought. Not sure however that it really fits with the genre of music - Daft punk seems to be the only EDM band that uses a non-clean looking logo.
Used the image trace function in illustrator to see how well it could trace the logo. Overall it did an admiral job, however the roughness from the shine reduces the clarity somewhat. Further edited to remove these parts, and partially simplified it to make it slightly more coherent.
Phosphorescent Paint​
Wanted to try phosphorescent paint out, as it can have excellent results, and would befit an EDM-themed logo. Applied the paint to various objects, including a papermache dog.
Initial results were underwhelming. Relying on auto settings on an iPhone leads to some really poor results. In person, the paint actually glows more than slightly shown above. Decided to try using a mix of settings (manual exposure and night mode) to see if better results could be achieved.
The iPhone didn't love the UV light addition...
Altered settings did achieve much better results (particularly on the dog). You can however see the post processing on the image that apple has applied to achieve the end image. Bar the dog (which actually seems quite sharp), the letters and the pebbles lack any sort of clarity when at 100%
In the end, resorted to using a mirrorless camera. iPhones are really rescrictive in their camera settings, and i suspected that a really long exposure time was needed.
Output from camera:
Toying with long exposure was a hit and miss, but more due to personal human error. Providing the camera is kept absolutely still, more detail can be pulled out vs an iPhone, as seen in the TRTN letters and the first two images of the dog. Photographing the pebbles wasn't physically possible, as I didn't have a tripod to hold the camera for the long exposure. This is partly why the first TRTN letter photos is blurry, as well as the 3rd dog photo. Included however as the effect works in some ways.
Digital Edits:
Pebbles
Continuing on from the phosphorescent paint, decided to still lay out the pebbles as intended, minus the glow effect. This actually looked better than I was expecting, and still was inline with my intentions of realising dots, even though the pebbles weren't perfectly round. 
Black & White really works especially well with this experiment. Something clean out of something dirty. Could see this being easily applied across different media. Think this could be developed further , possibly by either reducing the spacing between pebbles, or even removing some.
Wasn't really sure where this was going. Wanted to do a 3d effect, to which the pebbles were the ideal candidate. Looks a bit too much like a barbie inspired creation however.
Printmaking
Lino printing worked out a lot better than expected. Managed to get a clean edge when cutting, which greatly helped in keeping the precision of the design. Actually prefer the outline print vs block; it just feels the right weight fore a logo.
Couldn't really visualise what to do with this logo, so applied it to the papermache dog from the previous experiment. Probably leaning more towards album art than solo logo, but it works well nonetheless. 
Out of the three, the 'gas' dog backdropped logo works really well. Subtle enough that it's there, whilst letting the logo remain the main focus.
Stationary Labels
Bought some white adhesive dots to play about with. Like how clean and unfussy it is, but it's really hard to make out the letters past the first T. Is the last one a H or an N? They do sit well against the textured black card
Millions
2nd in line for most random experiment (after the tomato ketchup, of course). They don't form very well as a logo, but there could be an application for millions further down the project.

DIGITAL Development

Hand Drawn Logos
Design A:
From the outset I wanted the type to be simple but befitting with the genre, to which this works well. It's edgy whilst minimising complexity, whilst also remaining compact which will allow use across different media. 
Design B:
Although this works, it's not immediately clear what it says, as the T's could be confused for end points or even the serif I. It does however work as a monogram, and would be easy to apply to merchandise. The analogue outline print worked better in this regard, as it separated the letters. Could be a contender for further development.
Design C:
With tartan being in the name, felt it was important to experiment with including a bit of Scottish heritage into the design. Although still undecided on the colour stripes, the tartan fabric square and dots combo works, and leaves opportunity to develop further with colour palettes, styling etc.
Design D
Out of all the logos designed so far, this is the cleanest, consisting of only 4 shapes. Despite a lack of sharp edges, It still seems clear enough that it says 'trtn". Placed the 'dots' part of the band name cleverly as the t's arm, to maximise simplicity.
Design E
Whilst I do find this design aesthetically pleasing, it does remind me a little bit too much of Nintendo's Smash bro's logo (possibly from extending the top of the letter T's). Not certain on how well it would work across other media with the diagonal layout.
Design F
This logo works, but would be very limited in application as a band logo. Had to put against a black background to see the true effect. The logo is reminiscent of early 2000 trance designs.
Design G
Looking back at Scottish heritage, Ness is a perfect candidate for logo design. Paired with design A as Ness on its own does not convey any sort of band meaning. Not quite sure if it works; it's application would be more suited for an album cover vs band logo.
Design H
For this design, it was necessary to use different software. Given that it's a handwritten logo, I used an iPad to recreate this (using affinity designer) to get the base shape, which then I can edit where necessary in illustrator. Affinity designer is vector based, allowing the option to adjust at the later stages easily.
Realised early on that the hand drawn design on paper wasn't correct script wise, so avoided recreating as exact. out of the five, the last has the most potential as a logo, although unsure of the capital T at the start...
In illustrator:
This logo has potentional, but unsure of the dot gracing the end of the text. It's simple enough however to apply across media, and could easily be changed to fully B/W.
Logo I
Honestly not even sure where this one was going, what was it's purpose, or what it even means. Possibly recreating a disco ball-esque look, but it hasn't really worked.
Design J
Want a symbol/mark like disclosure use across their whole band branding, however it doesn't really work with solid shapes. do like the eyes but the rest of the design is a bit boring. 
Design K
The stacking of letters allows the shape to be contained within a square, which would be useful later on in development, but cant help but see the old Tyne Tees television logo (was arranged TTTV, which isn't far off TRTN).
Design L
This so far is the one that's probably in line for further development. It's simple, different and unique. Could see it being used easily across branding, and if needs be could possibly be converted to long-length single line text.
Design M
Another contender for further development, this one screams dance. The TRTN seems better when there's not two dots at the end gracing it's presence. 
Design N
Originally thought up as 'what lies beneath the tartan skirt'. Reminds me too much of multiple things... something rude, the middle finger, a pizza box, and a lot of flags.
Design O
This has corporate vibes, and resembles Halifax/Bank of Scotland quite strongly. Probably a little too safe for a EDM logo.

Design Outcomes

Logo A
Logo B
Logo C
Logo D
Logo E
Going to attempt to finalise 5 logos for presentation, however if it proves too much, will at minimum finalise 3. Chose these ones as they befit the genre best. Would have liked less heavy text logos, so may try to manipulate some to reduce the text dependance.

Logo refining

Logo A: 'TRTN Txt'
Haven't found that there's really much to be done with this text logo. still think the original design is best. Have however in the 3rd logo pulled in the letters slightly to remove the wide gaps, along with curving the T round the R, which adds a tad bit of complexity.
Logo B: 'TRTN Emblem'
Wanting to try and make this logo less corporate looking. It did look good when press-printed, but feel there's so much more that could be done with it.
The 5th logo is very in-keeping with the genre; a lot of album art is line-based.
The last two logos are interesting in that they pretty much don't retain a lot of the originals design, but still manage to look like an evolution. They are a little over-complicated mind. It's clear using dots as a visual meaning for dots, along with dots in text is too much.
Logo C: 'TRTN Wave'
After creating the 6th logo, noticed that there could be an opportunity to include a soundwave into the design, something very relevent in music, and in particular electronic / dance genres (being mostly digital).
Wanted to explore trying to recreate a soundwave in the style of this logo. The legibility however held back getting the right bends for this to happen. Going too far in the curve would result in the logo being unreadable, but not going enough makes it look like a graph.
Example of heart monitors and sound waves:
The 10th logo (below, right) has a certain charm to it, almost appearing like it's a face. the breaking of the continuous curves helps make it look less block, but still looks like an analogue radio wave.
Logo D: 'Gooey TRTN'
Wanted to add the word 'DOTS' to this logo as there was nothing in the logo that symbolises the dots. Looked for a premade typeface to tie in with the logo, however none were quite working, so... made one instead.
As a base, used the TRTN logo that it was to match, pulling out said letters. Although there was only 3 letters in the logo, it was easy enough to work out a style for the font using these. Drew most of them digitally without guide, however some letters proved difficult. Traced over some drawn out letters and then adjusted digitally to align. 
Used Affinity Designer to create the font; Adobe Illustrator is great, but it's far quicker (and easier) to manually manipulate shapes on the fly using Designer. Imported letters back into Ai file to use with the designs. Example above of the letter S being 'built'.
Designs:
Out of the five logos chosen to refine, this is the one that had the most playability. There's something about the fabric swatch shape; feel like so much could be done with it. The TRTN logo itself looks better when the inner lines are removed (Logos 3, 4, 7 and 10) vs leaving them in to separate the letters. 
Logo E: 'Dotty TRTN'
There wasn't a great deal that could be done with this logo. It's limited scope is that its built from dots. Do however think the Lego 'connector' style logo (logo 9) has great potential when applied across different mediums. The 'egg' style (Logo 5) is different in that it lacks any sort of parallel lines, however it was very harsh-looking when in B&W.

Final designs

Logo A "TRTN TXT'
Logo B 'TRTN Emblem'
Logo C 'TRTN Wave'
Logo D: 'Gooey TRTN'
Logo E 'Dotty TRTN'
Chose these refinements as the final logos. Still text-heavy, however the star of the show will be the swatch shape, acting as the band identity mark.

Colour testing

Black & White
All work really well in black and white. Only the last logo needed minor adjustments to design (outline instead of fill on parts).
Colour
Playing with colour combinations. None of the logos have much issue adapting to different colour schemes. Not setting a colour palette at the beginning has turned out well, because it now means that there's no restriction in colour choices when creating the merch.

back to analogue

Laser Cutting
In action:
Finished cuts:
A bit of manual printing:
Analogue merch (keyrings):

Merchandise Development

Initial Mockups
TRTN 'Txt'
TRTN 'Emblem'
TRTN 'Gooey'
TRTN 'DTS'

Final Outcome

Logo A
Logo B
Logo C

logo presentation

Feedback

From the feedback session it was clear that the colour palettes weren't right for any of the logos, especially Logo A. Struggled a bit with colour, as dance music tends to have bright flashy colourful artwork/branding. Want to strip Logo A back to basics. 

Logo B was noted as not fitting the genre too well, which I think is likely because of the bubble-like font and bloated weight look. Originally wanted just the fabric patch and a dot, but it seemed a bit basic, however I think it needs explored.

​Logo C, too corporate... Not particularly keen on this logo, so wont be refining it further.

Feedback response

Changes: Logo A (TRTN 'Wave')
Reverted to a previous design, to get away from the 'playful look', reintroducing sharp corners and limiting shape quantity to 4. Limited the colour panel to black, white and hot pink. Will use this pallete for the rest of the designs, as it's the one that works the most effectively.
Black & White:
Colour:
Merch Mockups:
Re-engineer: Logo B (TRTN 'Gooey')
Wasn't happy with this logo from the outset; never found the right 'look' for it. Want to try and rework this logo with just the patch mark and a dot, rather than having logo included within the design. Wanted to do this from the beginning but it just seemed that text was a given. Have heavily used the patch mark throughout merch across the logos, which suggests it's the effective piece of art from logo B.
Bands with textless logos
Traditional material swatches
Wanted to see what shape actual fabric swatches are. Nipped to next and got some samples. The fabric ones themselves are the wrong shape, but they do leather square swatches too.
These have too much of a zig zag edge to really do anything with them (bar manually cutting them out the intended shape). Still think the shape orginally designed with less zig is better for the purpose.
Initial layout ideas:
The 3rd and 11th are the most appropriate; any with the circle centred inside the swatch look too dice like. Don't mind the cut-out ones but they would limit what you could do with the logo. More than one dot is too much (though this doesn't help with the band's name dots being plural...
Black & White:
Colour:
Merch Mockups: