After meeting up with the band it was clear that their genre of music fit between indie and pop. I began my research by looking in existing indie/pop artists and gathered how they communicated and reflected their music through their album covers.
The two album covers for peace appear to have a mixture of different media and imagery. The red/pink colour is apparent in both designs which communicates a sense of love and happiness, the watermelon design also has a psychedelic background bringing vibrancy and energy to the design, whilst the album cover above appears to use repeated layers to create something more abstract.
Foals first album cover takes more of a hand drawn approach. Although the music is very upbeat and energetic the hand drawn face looks dazed and lost in thought, his mouth however contains a more electro pop influenced pattern bringing a more vibrant look to the design. The pattern contrasts with the plain beige background but does not distract you too much from the rest of the design.
Tame Impala's album cover appears very busy and energetic. The music takes influence from 70's psychedelic and pop, this is reflected with the use of different inks creating abstract and vibrant colours. The type selected brings more of a foundation to the design, inside the circle it helps break up the design and bring more of a hierarchy for the audience to follow.
Two Door Cinema Club also use a mixture of imagery and type. The san serif type varies between a thin outline and a bolder thicker weight, as the O's have been converted to the outline it lets the image behind become more visible revealing a cat with what looks like very sparkly eyes and a crown on its head. This reflects the band in a sense of that the music is quite random and will take you by surprise.
Alt - J have also gone down a psychedelic route with their album cover. Their music is very minimal and consist of low key beats and vocals that create more of a relaxed therapeutic atmosphere, the design reflects this as it almost represents the veins and chemical reaction in our bodies when we hear or feel anything. The triangle I think does not add or communicate anything to the design and is unneeded, it makes the design look more amateur and distracts you from the background.
This album cover by Swim Deep has a 90's yet 70's psychedelic atmosphere. The layers of inks add depth and energy to the design with the same vibrancy seen throughout the images of the band members. The black background of the images with the border add more depth and hierarchy to the page for the eye to follow. The text however is very small which is an issue however it fits with the theme of the design.
After speaking to the band it became clear that one of the reasons they chose the name 'We Built A Mountain' was because they liked the letters being put together to form WABAM. This request I played on because the bands style of music has a indie/pop sound with soul/jazz vocals, this leaves a lot of room for creativity as its bashing two genres of music together to create something new and unique.
I started by playing around with Wabam, I tried the type with curves and without curves which helped decide what would communicate the band best. I removed the crossbar on the A on one of the experiments, this helped simplify the look of the type which worked well with the edited B I had created with no curves. Arranged together they worked better as a group rather than individual letters and remained legible still.
I then started playing around with the words of the band and positioning them into a triangle as that was something the band requested. A triangle is a good way of representing a mountain in a minimal way, the type however was a challenge as to make it legible without looking squashed and unprofessional. I also tried different sizes of the words in the triangle to form some of hierarchy and make it appear more legible to the audience.
The experiments to the right were trying to do a mixture of the previous experiments and see if they were more successful. This produced a more successful design to experiment with, positioning the letters inside the triangle gave a more obscure aesthetic which reflects the bands mixture of two genres.
I then experimented more with the positioning of the type and letters inside the triangle to see if it would be more of a stronger concept. This helped me get to the development stage as I found that the letters positioned in certain ways to touch the edge of the design created different shapes within the design yet still resembled the letters WBAM, however my concern is that the logo as a whole will not be legible enough.
This is the experiment I enlarged to see what it was like at a larger scale. I tried positioning the name of the band on the bottom incase the triangle was not clear enough however this is something I need feedback from the band and if it works or not. The weakness within the the logo is if the letters are legible enough, or if it sparks a sense of curiosity for the audience to work out for themselves. After being taught it nots always the best to be so direct with the audience, and its sometimes beneficial to let them work things out for themselves then they get a sense of satisfaction.
The experiments and development of the logo I have done have helped me engage with what the band is requiring whilst also being creative and fulfilling exactly what they want. The next step is to send over the designs to the band and get some feedback on what works and what doesn't.
