Cosmic Blu is a chill hop band that needed a logo. The kind of feelings the logo needed to capture were: "floaty, sparkling, calming, spacey, curious, light"
In exploring possibilities for the design, I prioritized the theme of curiosity.
And what screams curiosity more than discovering the vastness of space?...
As such, I first kept in mind imagery of spaceships, stars, and galaxies. I created a Pinterest mood board to help inspire my logo iterations.
On to sketching!
While most of my sketches where inspired by physical objects like spaceships and stars, some doodles became more abstract. I realized it made a lot of sense to focus on something more abstract as music itself isn't something physical and focuses more on emotions.
I soon stumbled upon the abstraction of two lines, one reaching up and the other reaching down. The two lines were meant to represent not only volume bars in music, but also unyielding curiosity unafraid to go in new directions.
We both loved this idea so I decide to pursue it further.
The next step in the process was to find the perfect font.
The font had to be free for commercial use, so after some research I gathered the top contenders. What I was looking for was a spacey, extended typeface.
The client preferred Michroma, the one at the bottom left. It was a good starting point but I made some modifications till it looked just right.
Keeping in mind the main use of the logo will be small on tickets, I increased the letter-spacing and boldened-up the font. Referring back to the original sketch the client liked, I extended the font even more making sure the line weight stays equal through-out.
Finally, I decided the terminals of the c and s didn't match the geometric feel.
Below: Another version of the logo in lockup with 2017.
The best way to use this logo is to let the vertical line run to the boundaries of the design, showing the vastness of space and the boundlessness of curiosity.
Credits to Nathan Anderson on unsplash.com for the free for commercial use galaxy photo. https://unsplash.com/@nathananderson?photo=L95xDkSSuWw
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