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How to get a logo


Mickeyboro

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Trawl through images on't'Net until you find something that works for you. If you can find an 'owner' then ask for permission to use the image.

 

The Junkyard Dogs have used the 'Cuddles' image for nearly 20 years after Rick found it online and suggested it as a joke. We've never found anyone who claimed to own it.

 

Damo & The Dynamites have used the 'Rockabilly Skeletons' image since the band was founded five years ago after then-drummer Marcel found it online. I traced the image to a famous Japanese graphic designer & artist based in Tokyo and LA; I emailed him a couple of times asking for permission to use his image but he never bothered to reply.

 

 

 

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I have no problem with paying a graphic designer to design the perfect logo, but had I done that with all the bands I have been involved with over the last 20 years I'd have shelled out a fortune (most of the musos I've played with were either stony-broke or incredibly tight-fisted 😂) and ended up owning a couple of dozen beautiful logos for bands that never got to play a gig.

 

By the time a band is sufficiently well-established that you can see that it's worth having a decent logo designed and paid for, chances are that the temporary logo you used for the first dozen gigs has already become equally well-established.

 

Just follow the line of least resistance.

 

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The manager of one of the pubs we play in is quite a good artist. She drew a guitar playing devil to put as a poster to promote one of our gigs.

We loved it and asked her if we could use it for our logo. Luckily she agreed. 

 

345607364_789772162372685_1725865209060127240_n.jpg

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I just found a font I liked and used that.

 

image.png.77859e6ba3a45b9bf3820105df912f63.png

 

It's kinda like the font used on the cover of The Cure's "Wild Mood Swings".  The letters kinda look like they're dancing?  It's ruined now, I've explained it ;)

 

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1 hour ago, Hobbayne said:

The manager of one of the pubs we play in is quite a good artist. She drew a guitar playing devil to put as a poster to promote one of our gigs.

We loved it and asked her if we could use it for our logo. Luckily she agreed. 

 

345607364_789772162372685_1725865209060127240_n.jpg

A bass-playing angel suggests itself!

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4 hours ago, acidbass said:

I've used freelancers on Fiverr lately for band promo stuff and they have been great.  You can see previous portfolios and the contact/proofing etc is great.  Some examples of work:

FU Both 20pc.jpg

FU Logo Round Small.jpg

Looks like your trussrods could use a spot of adjustment...

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File formats may still be important. Have a look into that aspect.
See, two decades ago we had trouble transferring files between designer, advertising bureau, magazine printer, stickers printer, banner printer and car wrapping company.
Several of these people called the others "amateurs" and we, the client, had no idea.

I'm guessing there should be a standard file format across these disciplines (at least by now if not back then), maybe vector-based, maybe not, I don't know.
But better ask some questions before jumping on the first offer.

Good luck!

Edited by BassTractor
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The best file format will depend on the graphical content.

 

Vectors are ideal because they will scale to any size without loss of quality. However not every design works well in vector format. Of all the examples shown in this thread only the "Foxtrot Uniform" round logo works in vector format. Everything else would have been created and supplied in a bitmap format. The problem with bitmap formats is that they need to be at least 300DPI at the size you intend to print them. Trying to enlarge them beyond what was original created will result in pixelation or blurring neither of which is a good look. For really big items like backdrops or banners you may get away with a lower resolution as the printed item will be viewed from some distance. 

 

The other problem is colour gamut. Colours that look good on screen such as vibrant blues, greens and oranges rarely print as well, so the colours on your wonderful logo that you have approved on your phone will look dull, dirty and muted when printed on posters etc.

 

The problem with most amateur designers is that they won't appreciate this as they spend most of their time designing on screen and on a home printer, and wonder why their fantastic logo looks blurry and dull when printed out on a banner for the band.

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3 hours ago, BigRedX said:

The best file format will depend on the graphical content.

 

Vectors are ideal because they will scale to any size without loss of quality. However not every design works well in vector format. Of all the examples shown in this thread only the "Foxtrot Uniform" round logo works in vector format. Everything else would have been created and supplied in a bitmap format. The problem with bitmap formats is that they need to be at least 300DPI at the size you intend to print them. Trying to enlarge them beyond what was original created will result in pixelation or blurring neither of which is a good look. For really big items like backdrops or banners you may get away with a lower resolution as the printed item will be viewed from some distance. 

 

The other problem is colour gamut. Colours that look good on screen such as vibrant blues, greens and oranges rarely print as well, so the colours on your wonderful logo that you have approved on your phone will look dull, dirty and muted when printed on posters etc.

 

The problem with most amateur designers is that they won't appreciate this as they spend most of their time designing on screen and on a home printer, and wonder why their fantastic logo looks blurry and dull when printed out on a banner for the band.


There’s the cheap way and the right way. 
 

This above is the right way!


Recently spent several thousand pounds rebranding my business and the expertise of a graphic designer was so helpful.

 

You won’t need to spend this much, but a few hundred quid could provide something you can apply wherever required.

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I was thinking of logos today, when I saw this . 
I honestly can't make out the names of some of these bands . I saw a flyer in the London Astoria going back a few years promoting a death metal gig . Death may well have been on the bill, but really the standard is poor . I'm sure your logo will be much better ..

IMG_0510.webp

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11 hours ago, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

I was thinking of logos today, when I saw this . 
I honestly can't make out the names of some of these bands . I saw a flyer in the London Astoria going back a few years promoting a death metal gig . Death may well have been on the bill, but really the standard is poor . I'm sure your logo will be much better ..

IMG_0510.webp

 

Lorna Shore is the only illegible logo there, and that's mainly because it's a nonsensical name.

Anyone interested in going to that festival will be familiar with that kind of typography and have little trouble deciphering who's who.

 

Much more difficult to read are these logos:

 

 

image.thumb.png.91441fd308540c205054d8847f437de0.png

 

image.png.23de8016ec4a3e49ddc3058546b21536.png

 

image.thumb.png.317489779f2acdc68188c9e654df370a.png

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These make me giggle, I must say.  And what the actual name is once unravelled - stuff like 'Zombie Slime' or 'Decomposing Foetus' that bubble up from the rancid depths of pubescent brain.  I suppose The Colin Jones Quartet doesn't quite cut it, but still :D 

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8 minutes ago, Paul S said:

These make me giggle, I must say.  And what the actual name is once unravelled - stuff like 'Zombie Slime' or 'Decomposing Foetus' that bubble up from the rancid depths of pubescent brain.  I suppose The Colin Jones Quartet doesn't quite cut it, but still :D 

I dont know, I think that could work...
TheColinJonesQuartet.png.9c7d2e5abf9b715cbcf22249ab8a4bb9.png

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6 hours ago, Bolo said:

Lorna Shore is the only illegible logo there, and that's mainly because it's a nonsensical name.

 

I can't make out the one starting with a V under D.R.U.G.S. (column 1), the one above Fugitive in column 2, (it seems to start with an L so presumably that's Lorna Shore), the one under Judas Priest and the one under architects in column 4, and I'm not sure if there's a short word before Nino in column 3.

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