Saturday, 14 April 2012

After my logo was complete i started designing these . I wanted to create a range of these band posters to represent different genres of music and appeal to wider range of audience. This would hopefully mean  more people are interested in visiting the museum as a result. These were created using photos of the bands with a cut-out filter on them. I then colourized each photo and adjusted the contrast brightness etc. until I liked the result. I then placed it onto these canvases and merges so the photograph fit perfectly onto this coloured background. The logo i edited to look better over the top and you can still tell its the bme logo even though it over the not the original colours I may play around with some of these to try and get a better outcome but i am really happy with the result atm. The text is the same as on the logo and I wanted to keep everything consistent but have a small introduction to the bands in each one.

 This light blue logo looks nice but it doest look too much like the British colours. It reminds me of the Skype logo and I think I will apply the gradient to my final design as it makes it look less simple without over doing it The whole thing if you didn't know by now is supposed to be in the shape of a boom box which I think looks quite effective.
 I tried the logo's in different colours and detailing. The first two in blue have a gradient colouring on which i actually really like. It still looks simple but adds a bit of depth to it . This blue could easily represent bme as it looks like the British colours but im not as keen on it as red.
 This one uses the outlined to define the speakers better which I don't actually like as much . It seems to make it a bit more complicated than I want it to be. The highlight are also not blended in this one which i think needs doing and the red is slightly darker.
This is the one with the least amount of detail and i do like it but without the gradient it looks a bit plain.I followed what i found in the research and kept the colours minimal which seems to be the best thing to do with these logo's and for the brand itself.


When thinking of a new idea for a logo that would go well with the font i had chose I remembered an idea I had done previously of trying to make the letters look like the object which came from the figure 5 photography logo I had seen in my research. When initially trying this idea i used capitals and was mainly trying for the "M" to look like some sort of handle and for the rest to hopefully follow. This didn't workout and i therefore ditched the idea early not realising i would find a font perfect for the idea. When i went back to the idea and started again i used the perfect roundness of the b and e to create what looks like the speakers and the m in the middle no longer had to be a handle which meant the logo could just flow. I added the handle to make it clear what the intent of the logo was and curved all the edges except the b to add a bit of style to it. I didnt want to over complicate the logo and left it rather simple to keep the modern ness of it .I added a few highlights underneath to curved letters to emphasise the letters and add a small bit of detailing without going over the top.This idea was now definitely going to be used in my final design. The two capital letter logo's were the ones i used initially before i found the font i was going to use and i thought they were all-right at the time i just didn't believe it represented anything it was supposed to but it seems to look a lot better after i changed the font and design.



 After I realised I love the font I had chosen but it was the image that wasn't right I went back to the music note logo which I really loved and tried it next to that one. The first result before the white lines were added over the text looked too blocky and the music note didn't flow well with the type which is why I decided to carry on the white lines with the logo which made it look a lot better and i was happy with it .The colours seemed alright too and it would still look relevant if I had to do the logo in black and white. The only thing I didn't like was the colours in the music note looked too much like the american flag and less like Britain which without the name i thought could be deceiving. I then started to not like the logo and was thinking of another universal music emblem which would go with the name.






This was my final idea or what i thought was going to be it. I had another microphone with more detailing and that personally i thought looked nicer. It could also stand up nicely next to my text  as it had a stand and was an upright microphone. I started my taking several images of it in what I believed to be a good position. I wanted the wire to be trailing away to leave it looking more electrical. When in Photoshop I drew around it with the pen tool and first of all deleted the background. Then i got a basic union jack flag from Google and placed it behind the microphone layer. I then created a new layer pressed Ctrl on the microphone and inverted selection and painted a white block all the way around the shape of my microphone on the empty layer. This was so once done i could still move the union jack around to get a good positioning.I then hid the actual microphone images and moved the union jack until it was in a position i was happy with once it was i merged the union jack and the white to create a single layer. I then changed the colours do a darker colour that I liked and turned the whole thing around so the wire part was running into where the text was going to be .I then got rid of the white again so i could position the logo exactly where i wanted it . The text i ended up using at first was coolvetica and was kind of happy with it but i hated the way the experience word stuck out really far therefore wanted to either shorten just that word replace it or do something different. After a while i decided to just go with BME which i did at first in the same font. After I realised the font didn't suit to be that big so i used a font called moderna and did it in all lower-case letters which looked much better. It then came to my attention that the block colours looked cheap and tacky which is why i decided to add a gradient and lighten the colours slightly. Just to finish off the logo i added the name underneath to finish it off. My mum then came in the room and when i asked her opinion she said "what's that shape though " so after asking a few more people and reev evaluating my options i decided to ditch the microphone idea altogether but i was really happy with the font which i intended to keep.




 After realising that a guitar wasn't universal enough I went onto looking at something all musicians used therefore started drawing out ideas for microphones.The top idea was drawn using oil pastel and liked the idea from the start. I then started photographing a microphone i had against a blank wall. The only problem is i wanted to get the wire in which was hard as i had to hold it.When finished i took the image into Photoshop and used the pen tool to create an outline for the handle. The ball bit of the microphone at the end i created a perfect sphere and placed it next to the handle. To make it look like a union jack I duplicated the layer changed the colour to red and overlapped it . I then used an image of a union jack flag spherized it on Photoshop and selected all the white and blue bits and  cut them out of the necessary spheres. I then added a few shapes and used Gaussian bluer to give it a bit of depth. I tried several font but settled on a font downloaded from dafont.com called coolvetica which I believe to be a variant of helvetica . I decided to make it look slightly more modern by keeping it in lower-case and made all the text white to go over the mic shape.Even though i spent a lot of time and really wanted to use a mic in my final design i was really not very happy with the outcome for this and decided to try again .I wanted to do the logo like i drew it but realised people might think its a logo for a sperm donation clinic.


This idea was one of the first ones I had. I tried it in pencil crayon like picture number one and then I tried it in fell tip to get more of a solid colour in number 2. I think the first one actually looks better which shows if and when producing this logo digitally i should do it using a lighter colour that's not overly bright. The bright colours below look more cheap and less professional and for a museum the aim is for it to look quite elegant and professional as they usually attract a more high end audience. The text wasn't really thought about when producing this logo but I wanted to keep the logo in a smallish area therefore did the text in 3 layers. The colours are the same as all the other logo's but i believe the faded colours have more interest and history than the more plain looking block colour. The only problem i see with this logo is that using an image of a guitar is being slightly biased and unfair on music genres that do not use a guitar in their songs. It may therefore give the example that the museum only concentrates on artists and musicians that play guitar so perhaps i should look at a more respectful image to all music and genres.

Friday, 13 April 2012


This logo was created with wax crayons and was a fairly simple idea but i liked it. The intent purpose was to make the B into half of a guitar therefore representing music . I noticed however apart from the blue it didn't say anything about Britain. As the b was supposed to look like a guitar it would have to be quite a solid colour so i wasn't quite sure what type of font I should use. I think i will develop this logo further in some way as it seems to be one of my favourites so far as it remains simple yet effective and relevant to the company it is for.I also tried a variant with the union jack being in the guitar area but it looked cheap again after that therefore I got rid of it and replaced  it for solid colour.

In this one I felt I wanted to make the logo solely typographic but incorporate a music note into each of the "I"'s i didn't like this at all after I did it therefore decided to ditch it completely. It was created using wax crayon which is a material I particularly hate using anyway . I also felt the type looked better in all lower-case which is because it looks slightly more modern rather than using big bold letters .Also i thought about the positioning because in all previous logos the word experience has looked too long for the other words making it look awkward, which is why the music is centred therefore giving it more depth and character.







These other two logo,s were created together as a pair that would fit on any type of advertising campaign of any length or size. I actually really liked these as the music note had the British colours and also represented music very well while keeping the text simple but effective. The colours also created an importance against the grey text. The only reason I didn't like this logo is that it looked like something from the 80,s or 90's and didn't appear modern enough for a museum now. I will consider however the font as it is a basic but strong and British looking style and still looks modern the way it is used.

Thursday, 12 April 2012



This idea is quite a simple one and would really fit on just about anything. It is a bold typographic logo with a union jack on colouring on it. This would be okay on any white documents but it would have to lose the union jack on any coloured documents as it would look too cluttered and wouldnt go. It also represents britain fully but doesnt represent music at all.The Photoshop changed the middle letter to a block blue because if the union jack is on the "M" As well then the text is not legible at all. I want a quite simple logo but I'm really not keen on how simple this one is.The font is called Genuine and is i a great simple bold font that looks kind of british.

This logo idea came to mind mainly when looking at the British airways logo. I decided to use a blue and red modern looking wave shape representing Britain. I like that bit but when i came round to doing the text on it unless the text followed the lines it looked rather odd therefore the way i did it fits but it looks rather cheap and probably wouldn't fit on any sort of advertising campaign very smoothly.This one was also created with pencil crayons using the exact same colours as the mod style one. The problem i faced was the logo not being musical enough so i therefore added the music notes which i think ruined the logo. Apart from that i like the idea of taking a less literal approach with maybe just an element of music.To go with the curves of the logo the font i wanted to use would be quite simple yet with more curves than something such as Arial. A script font would look too fancy and not really go with the more modern design yet i wanted it to feel more flowing so decided on ; again; a very slimline yet basic font






These are some of the variants i came up with ditching the music symbols at first. They were reasonable designs but looked too much like British airways. I also straightened out the text and moved it around slightly to make it look slightly more professional, which I believe worked. The first one uses the same font as the mod logo and the other two uses a thinner font called Eras Light ITC. It is a really simple slim font with a normal kerning and although i originally said it was going to have to be a curvy text this straight one seems to work perfectly. The second logo above i do not like as much as the third as the big slimline letters don't look to fit as well with the curves and in my opinion looks more forced than a natural looking logo I wanted. The one with a smaller pt size and the full name of the business works better as it seems to look more professional and as the logo doesn't have anything related to music its better that the type of business is stated in the logo.The only problem is when the logo is small such as now the smaller pt size with thin letters becomes less legible making it difficult to se the name and concentrating on the big curves. All three were created using the pen tool to create the swooshes then fitting them together cutting the edge to make them straight.I also played with the colour of the fonts and blue definately looked better than red which made the logo look too red.


carrying on my development I started drawing out initial ideas using simple pencil crayons.This one was made using the original existing logo as I took into account the mod style shape and the same colours. As you can see the text was incorporated into the outer round of the circle but I found with the current shape and size their wasn't enough text to cover the whole length of the circle, meaning a block of blue colour had to be put in afterwards.For this reason i didn't like the design but the colours seemed appropriate to Britain so used the same ones throughout.The font i tried to use on here is a very simple slimline and modern font with very tight kerning as i wanted the blue colour to almost look solid but for people to still be able to make out the words and so the text is legible.

Despite not liking the drawn logo i thought i would try it digitally but alter it slightly to fit more compfortably. The end result was was like the one above which bi particularly hated more than the first. I decided to double up the text to thicken the outer circle and compensate for the substantial amount of red compared with blue therefore making in look more sloppy and unprofessional. The only way i could really get it to work on Photoshop was to also have another set of writing underneath which made it more confusing and less proffesional. I also believed that even though similar to the original logo it doesn't really symbolise or represent music in anyway, therefore ruled this style of all together.To make the name stand out more i varied the colours and made one of the "brirish.music.experience" 's more visible which again further ruined the logo. If i was to use any variant of the mod style logo i would probably stick closer to the original on and perhaps just alter the size or style of the text. The font i used on this logo was Incised901 BdCn BT. I tried many differerent variants of which ones would look better but to make it look more solid i used a heavier font than i was going to when drawing out the original concept idea.









Tuesday, 20 March 2012

The beatles were arguably the most recognisable british bands and an icon from the 1960's where they started right up to now. Their songs inspired many and their love and peace themes can be blamed for the hippie culture that peaked in the 60's and 70's. Like the sex pistols, the beatles were more than just a band and their hairstyle and image were copied around Britain and followed into america. Not many british artists make it big in america which is why the beatles were a huge success.Many other bands jumped on the bandwagon and tried this love/pop music in order to require fame such as the american band the monkeys but none ever made it as big.There overall meaning and message was to promote a peaceful and loving attitude in which has been seen to influence British music significantly throughout.
The sgt pepper lonely hearts club band was one of the Beatles most famous albums, not only for the music but the very distinctive album art .
This iconic album cover and piece of design work was an award winning design which had several people working on it.The main designer was peter blake but it also had several other art directors and designers working on it too. It has been created by photographiching cardboard cutouts of many famous music icons, film stars, writers and several other famous or faces. The artwork seems to have a big influence from pop art as the colours used are bright and vivid and the bstyle is sort of cartoony but keeping the detail and importance. It also looks to have a ceratin punk feel to it with the collage of cutouts and range of colours. The flowers towards the front relate back to the beatles again with their very "hippy" style which is also represented with the colours.The detail shows the beatles respect and love for music with the previous awards stiched onto the outfits and all the famous figures have had some impact in the entertainment industry. The typography sits well with the design and even though it uses several fonts it still looks professional and in context. Beatles is wrote in a large upper case letters with quite a simplistic legible font which make sthat the focus of the cover, which is quite important when people want to see the artist of the album. The name of the album is on what appears to be a drum kit in the middle and gives a sort of circus feel , especially with the crowd of people and range of colours. Aswell as the drum there appears to be several other instruments scattered around the image which brings people back to the fact this is an album.

Tuesday, 13 March 2012

The sex pistols were and still are probably the most recognised punk band in the world and really initiated the whole genre. They are a british band formed in 1975 who aswell as being recognised for their music were more importantly remembered for their anarchic way in which many other punk bands for formed upon. The punk style carried on after the band had there fame and many rebellious youths of the time followed the punk style with strange hairstyles, customized  blazers and often face piercings. The punk era was one of the most memorable music and fashion ones to come out of britain which is why i beleive punk needs to play a part in the final campaign for bme.
This album cover for the sex pistols was designed by artist Jamie Reid and was one of many designs he did for the band. Visually it is quite simple especially compared to other album covers but what it represented and still does is significant. The image consists of a union jack which looks to have been ripped and maybe burnt and the ransom type text . The destroyed union jack was a very anarchic shocking image to be seen around the time which is what the whole punk rock fashion was about. Using the union jack as well it shows the origin of the band and is used in many of Reid's designs. The colours are basic but used together represent punk very well. The blue and the red next to black and white also is sort of rebellious and sums up the pistols. The text is made up to look like a ransom note , which is a style of writing used constantly on graphic designs even today and obviously as ransom notes are used in crimes it has the rebellious feel to it again. Ransom notes were often cut out of newspapers therefore the typography sits nicely on top of the image as the ripped flag with a dirty white looks almost like a newspaper.The image and the bands reputation is levelled down a bit by the safety pins in the flag and makes them look less like meaningful criminals and more like slapstick rebels.

Monday, 5 March 2012

This is the original logo for the british music experience.I intent to use these colours as it represents britain well but will change the logo as it doesnt represent music very well . This is cleverly made up however to look like a museum exhibition with the lighting and the drop shadow making it look like its hung on a wall.This logo with a few tweaks would also be interchangeable amongst most types of advertising. The font is modern and stylish and matches the emblem well with the curves.The only thing i do not like about this logo is the vast amount the word experience sticks out further than the rest which makes it look out of place and awkward.
This logo is one I found online and is a great example of a social media entertainment logo. Although this doesnt show music it is a great example of a proffesional logo which is simple yet very effective. It cleverly uses the shape of the item it is promoting and the name to create this modern looking icon which is one that could be remembered .The colours used are minimal which makes it easy to put on any document and the simplicity makes it transferable and easy to remeber. Although the weight of the type varies the font stays the same and is also a sans serif curvy font like the one above. The way of merging name and image is a technique used often by artists such as herb lubalin and is something












The spotify logo which is a music website has this logo. It is also a very simple yet modern design which incorporates a symbol of sound into the actual design . The colours are minimal using several shades of one colour (green) and white and is used very well with its green and white promotional material. Keeping a logo like this in a little amount of colours as possible makes it look nicer on a page and not clash with any other objects within the website or material.For example facebook only uses blue and white and with this knowledge I think my logo should only contain 1 or 2 colours and white to make it better.