Harri Larkin - Logotype Development

Harri messaged me earlier saying they were struggling to fit the logo onto certain bits of merchandise and asked if she could have files that were just the text. How the logotype could be used in isolation wasn't something I'd previously considered, but the below uses match the aesthetic of the logo and are in a different aspect ratios to the circular logo. These variations provide the band with plenty of options.

Harri Larkin - Website Mocks

Before working on layouts for Harri Larkin's mock website I looked at the websites for Ramones - the band whose logo was used as inspiration for Harri Larkin's logo, and Linkin Park, a band who's website I've found to be functional in past experience.

I looked at the homepage and news page (the two pages I'm doing mock-ups of) as well as from the shop page to make sure the layout is usable for various pages.

Neither of the two websites seem to have consistant layouts, something which I plan on changing. Overlaying the three pages on top of each other allowed me to create guides on the page to create a simplified grid that would work for the content - this resulted in a couple of rows and the top for a menu a bar, 3 or 4 columns for content, and a row at the bottom that acts as a border. This is the guidance I'll be using as it appears to be a way to make functional websites look more visually consistent.

The simplicity of the layout meant I didn't have to stray far from the very rough sketch I did for the home page and it translated into a news page pretty easily. The background of the page is a photo the band provided me with made slightly transparent over the texture used for the logo. The star and dots in the logo are incorporated into the banner to extend the visual continuity. The typeface used are London (the typeface used in the logo) and London Fill to create a simple hierarchy, body copy is Gotham to keep it simple and modern.

It was suggested to me that the menu bar was too thick and bold to match the rest of the pages - making it thinner and the same opacity as the white boxes solved this problem. This also resulted in the logo being made bigger on the home page and the content boxes being shifted upwards on the news page.

Harri Larkin - Contextual Mock-Ups

Mocks that show how the logo works in context.

Harri Larkin - Final Changes

After getting some feedback on the designs I sent them, the band wanted to see how a tree with emphasis on it's roots would look in the logo instead of a queen as it was more relevant to some of the artwork they already have.

I did the below experiments to get an indication of what they'd like.

They liked the bottom ones but asked if they could have it with the image the other way up, which looks like this, which they liked.

They also wanted to see what it looked like with circles around the edges rather than stars, which looked like this, and again, they liked it.

In regards to the colours, they wanted to use the black, blue, purple and red in order to gain more feedback. These colours look like this.

They did however tell me that they were happy with the design, it was just the colours they were unsure of, so as far as I can tell, this project may now be complete.

Harri Larkin - Logo Development

Harri liked the new design, but requested the lettering be a bit thicker, and wanted to see it different colours in the same way the red and black was combined.

Increasing the thickness of the lettering does make the words stand out more, but the colours don't really do much for the logo as it overcomplicates it even further than the texture, which I wouldn't use.

 

 

Harri was really happy with these, and wanted to keep them all to decide which one to use after discussing them with the rest of the band.

Harri Larkin - Logo Development

I started by varying the brushes and line widths of all the vector lines within the logo, and found the limits of the extreme grunginess where the text was still readable and the minimal grunginess that was still noticeably not clean.

I decided to stick with the less grungy one because from my side of the design process I felt it important to champion the readability of the text. I used a textured background to make the logo grungier without hindering the readability further, as well as developing a red and black version of the two possible logos as the band have had difficulties deciding between the two colours.

Knowing that they've been having a difficult time deciding on the colour, I told them first to decide which row they prefer, because then I can talk about colour within the set and the potential advantages and disadvantages of each one.

My favourite is the below one however, as the high contrast makes the crown and text as visible as possible, as well as it having a more powerful feeling to it which gets saturated somewhat with the red.

I'm waiting to hear back from the band before doing anything else.

Harri Larkin - Stickers

I received these photo's earlier from Harri, who thanked me for the time and effort I'd put into the stickers. 

 


She also asked if I wouldn't mind spending a bit more time on the logo as she was more impressed with my ideas than the ones from the album artworker. In return she offered to send some money back for me with our mutual friend at Christmas. This was something I accepted straight away, as they're clearly pleased with my work and I thought it a good idea to establish a good working relationship with them as it could lead to further paid work in the future either with them or others from Bristol Institute of Modern Music.

She wanted the logo to look a bit grungier, sending me the below photo of an example. While this is very doable, finding a balance between the desired effect and retaining the legibility of the letters may be quite difficult.