My Ideas - Record Label

My Ideas

I need to think of a name before I design a logo as the logo needs to include the name....

 

Name:

I have been thinking about words that are related to music, original and new.

Music: Melody, Tune, Harmony

Original: Creative, Imaginative, Unique....Unique: Exclusive.

New: Contemporary, Fresh...Fresh: Clean, Bright, Unmarked....Unmarked: Unharmed, Safe, Safe and Sound.
Spotless, immaculate, unblemished, pure, clean, spick and span, pristine, squeaky clean, perfect, flawless, gleaming....Gleaming: shiny, polished, luminous, glinting, glossy.

Because of the online record company being an indie company it makes me think about the difference and competition between independent record labels and major record labels. And it makes me think that the indie record labels are "Underdogs" to the Major Labels. The dictionary meaning to the word means: A person who is expected to loose in a contest or conflict. I don't want people to think that the record company is going to lose. But in the films the underdogs always win against the people that are known for winning. This is how I want people to take it but this isn't guaranteed. I looked on the Internet to see if there was already a record company called "Underdog Records" and there was. So I then went onto the thesaurus to see what other words are associated with "Underdog" because I like the idea of the meaning of the word. The words that caught my eye were "Dark Horse" and "Long Shot". At first I didn't think that either of these were going to work very well because they give off a negative feel. If I did use one of these it could be seen as ironic and could work.

Many bands and musical acts begin on independent labels, so I could think of some names using this theme. I looked at words to do with this and I started with "Getting Started",  I looked up synonyms for this and it came up with "On Track". This stuck out for me because of the play on the word "Track". As On Track means that it is going where you want it to go, but track can be related to a music track which then has something to do with the music label.

So far my favourite names that I have some up with are: Unmarked, On track, Long shot and Flawless.
If I choose these names I would like to Make them interesting like the Def Jam Logo. I like the idea of  using capital letters where there should usually be. This would make it more unique as well: "UnMarked" and "OnTrack".

Logos:

• I would like it to be the same as these logos, as in black and white and a basic font that fits all styles of music. I think it should include simple shapes or have a basic picture that has more than one meaning. 
• Although I like the Sony logo as the colour in the middle breaks up the black words. So maybe the image could have some sort of colour on it but not overtake the black writing.

I have come up with several logo ideas for "OnTrack" and "UnMarked" and "Flawless".

• For the Name "OnTrack" I came up with the idea of using a CD as the letter 'O'. Also the name on a cassette tape. I liked these ideas to begin with but now after doing some more research most people will get their music from online so cassettes and CDs are a bit "out of date". Another idea I had was the idea of having the word 'OnTrack' above a piece of train track and then  the word 'Records' underneath. I am trying to think of simple ideas that will make it rememberable and easy to take in.

• For the Name "UnMarked" I thought about having scratches/sketchy background behind the word "UnMarked" as it is the opposite and it will hopefully sick in peoples heads. I would like the writing to be white so that it looks like it has been rubbed out of the background. I also came up with a simple idea of having the name in a simple font like Arial and making it black and with a border. This idea is simple but it should make it more remember-able.

• For the Name "Flawless"  When I think of the word flawless it reminds me of the adverts about foundation on the Telly. This then made me think of an idea for a logo: When little children play with their mums makeup and get it everywhere. You could have a picture of the child face in-between the words "Flawless" and "Records". This is ironic because this isn't very flawless as synonyms of the word are spotless and clean. Another idea was a image of a diamond in the middle of the words. I think that it could be more effective if you have an image that looks almost 'clip-arty'. 

I have found a font for the "Flawless" logo on word that I like called.... The colour of the font reminds me off diamonds so I think that it links well. I found an image of a diamond that looks good with the  type of font but to make the font stand out with the image I put a black outline on the font. But I don't think it looks as good because it draws attention from the colour and pattern of the font.












To present my ideas to Lee my ideas, I am going to draw the logos by hand but for the font I am going to do it on word and print it out. This way there isn't going to be any bad hand drawn bubble writing that looks unprofessional. I find doing this way of working easier than working on a computer program such as Illustrator.
Lee and Sam are going to say which ideas they like the best and how to improve them.