Record Label Logo

As my project progressing and evolving, it is necessary to create my own record label logo in order to use it throughout the whole project development and serve as a distributor and promoter of the video I am producing for Jason Mraz's Song "Bright Eyes". Though in reality, the album <A Jason Mraz Demonstration> of the song "Bright Eyes" was self-released by Jason Mraz himself while he was till busking on the street, but it would still interesting to create the suitable record label and logo for the song, also will improve the professionality of my project.

Therefore, in order to gain creative inspirations from the existing designs of record labels to improve my maturity and professionality of my design, I decide to make a mood board of some of the record labels logo that I have found on internet. I have took a wide range research of record labels includes the oligopolies and some independent record labels in order to gain different ideas from different perspectives.

In my opinion, the most well-known and profitable record labels are Warner Bros Records, Virgin Records, Columbia Records, Sony Music and Universal Music Group, they are the oligopolies controls the nowaday music industry, basically all of these records labels are belongs to certain multinational corporations such as Warner Bros Entertainment, Virgin Group, Sony Corporation etc. All of them are financed and supported by those powerful multinational corporations, therefore they are very wealthy and powerful that the other record labels are hardly ever challenged their positions in the music industry. The design trends of these records label logos are simplicity, they usually don't contain much unique or thoughtful designs to draw attentions or much connotations within it, their main goal of these designs are express the identities of these record labels which is they are owned or belongs to certain corporations, for instance all these record labels are contained company logos within it, also the name of corporations in order to show the ownership of those corporations, also makes the audience aware of the popularity of them which makes their main goal very clearly, make profit. Those oligopoly records labels usually cares less about the art aspect of the music and cares more about the commercial aspects of the music.

However I have also looked into some designs of some independent or less famous record label logos to gain some inspirations for my design as well, usually the design of those independent or less famous record labels' logo are quite unique and contains certain amount of connotations with it. Secondly, my initial thoughts about my records label is that it supposed to be an independent records label that supports talented street musicians who is lack of means but really has potential, also find some record labels that specifically focusing on folk musics in order to make sure my design will fit the genre I have chosen, therefore it would be interesting to look at some independent record label designs and collect some different ideas and inspirations.

This mood board contains some most famous independent records labels such as XL Recordings(They used to own The XX), Way Out West Recordings(They used to own Laura Marling), Bella Union(They owns famous dream pop band dévics), etc. And also some less famous record labels that belongs to the major companies such as Reprise Records(Used to publish Joni Mitchell's several albums includes the most famous one "Blue"), and Dreamworks Records(Mainly focused on country music and folk music, has published several albums of Elliott Smith). What I found different of those independent or less famous records labels from those mainstream records labels is that the logo of independent records labels are much more detailed and artistic than those oligopolies, it's clearly much more creative and carries different meanings and ideologies of those record labels, and somehow most of these independent record label's logo tends to provides me a drawing or graffiti feeling, and most of them seems quite funky and nostalgic(Like 70s, 80s style), and overall independent records labels' logo are much more vital than those oligopolies.

Since I decide to create a independent records label specifically focusing on the genre I have chosen(Folk Music), the priority thing is to come out a good name for it, after all the struggles and thinkings I finally came out a perfect name for it which is "Gypsy Records", the reason that I want to name my record label "Gypsy" is because since I'm doing a folk music video, I want to make a really funky and nostalgic feeling out of it, also because the stereotypes of gypsies is always wandering around the places and always passionate about music, therefore I think this name is perfect to suit in my project, another reason is I really like a 1970s song called "Gypsy Queen"  that written by Australian musician Greg Quill. After I decided the name of my record label, it's about time to be creative and mess with the photoshop CS5!

At the very beginning, I have looked on several websites in order to find some suitable patterns or figures for my company logo, I mainly used Google, Dafont, and I find this T-shirt selling website Soul Arcade is quite interesting as well, it has lots of cool figures on it, so I took a look on it as well. And from my initial thoughts that I want my record label have a sense of nostalgic and also make reference to Gypsy Queen, I have found two figures from internet which a Vinyl Record and a Crown.

And I have looked several different fonts from Dafont, and eventually I found these two fonts looks quite interesting which is 1873 winchester and Budmo, they all looks very stylish and nostalgic which fits my genre conventions, therefore I downloaded them and trying to combine these elements with crown and vinyl that I have found before.

And then naturally I tried with Photoshop CS5 to put these elements together and see the effort out of it, initially I wanted to do a 3D logo, but after my research of other record labels' logo I realised that simplicity is a key thing for record label logo, with simplicity it will able to stand out from whether posters or albums for audience to memorize it, therefore I decide to make everything simple and looks stylish. At first, I've tried with font called "1873 winchester", also I attached some pattern on it and looks like this...

It looks fine though but due to the lack of space I can barely find place to squeeze my crown and vinyl figure in it, therefore I decided to create my record label logo with the font called "Budmo", I have replaced to "O" from Records with my Vinyl figure, and attached the crown on the top of letter "Y", eventually I have made several different editions out of it.

Original Version

Evidence of working process:

And eventually because of my genre conventions therefore I want my record label logo looks 70s-ish and nostalgic, which reminds me at 70s lots of young people used to wear these really colourful tee(Don't know the term of it) as a trend, like this...

And therefore, my final edition of "Gypsy Records" logo is...

Flat Edition

Oblique Edition

And eventually I finished the creation of my record label logo, I think they looks pretty well, basically maintains all the elements that I wanted to attach, nostalgic and stylish, also fits my genre characteristics.