Trilobite Music Group Branding
Background
The Trilobite branding came about because of a chain of associations. I'd heard the phrase "fossilized raindrops," and thought it was a compelling, surreal concept, and so sketched some ideas of what that might look like. A trilobite fossil with a tapered tail seemed to fit the bill. Excluding dinosaurs, trilobites were the first thing to come to mind when thinking about fossils, and by adjusting the proportions slightly, they could resemble the stereotypical shape of a raindrop. However, in my sketches, I noticed that the head of a trilobite fossil had a circular structure and the way I had drawn it gave it a vinyl-like quality. And so the idea of a music company that specialized in preserving and distributing old music came to be.
Specifications
This project was an opportunity to experiment with branding that had more industry-specific needs. I also wanted to get better at mockups, and so included that as part of the project. Therefore, particular facets of the project included:
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Sleek, relevant, highly adaptable logo with icon and wordmark
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Professional, branded administrative documents - letterhead & branded envelope
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Business card
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Generic company branded vinyl record label with mockups to demonstrate how it would look on the actual product
The Logo
As explained in the "Background" section, the idea for the logo came about because of the phrase, "fossilized raindrops." I played around with different levels of abstraction, complexity, and referential material in the icon, as you can see in the sketches to the left. The final result has the vinyl record as the head of the trilobite fossil and a radio tower emitting signal waves as the spine and end of the tail. The horizontal lines act as an extension of the curved lines emanating from the radio tower, without overwhelming the logo.
I did consider having the curved tendrils extending out of the vinyl be earbuds, but I felt that made the design too busy and packed with information when the logo should be on the simpler side. Earbuds also didn't fit into the older aesthetic of the logo, as they are a relatively new product, or at least aren't as old as radio and vinyl. If the company is supposed to specialize in handling old music, having a relatively recent piece of music technology would be anachronistic. Therefore, the horizontal lines and the tendrils act as simple design elements to fill in the silhouette and provide a juxtaposition between straight and curved elements to increase visual interest.
The two shades of brown are meant to reference earth and age - earth because of excavating fossils from brown dirt and age because of the browning/yellowing that occurs when certain objects get older. The difference in lightness can allow for contrast in brand-related material down the line, as well as the capability to work purposefully on dark and light backgrounds without just resorting to black and white.
The Business Card
Within the business cards, I introduce the iconography of stratified earth with music buried in the layers. With the company specializing in finding and preserving old music, it metaphorically pictures the company finding music hidden by time, similar to how an archaeologist might find valuable fossils. I also put a subtle cracked Earth texture on the darkest strata, which has more of an opportunity to be noticed on the informational side. The texture provides an additional read that probably won't be noticed when first received, but can be appreciated when/if someone returns to the business card looking for contact information.
The Letterhead
The letterhead was an opportunity to reinforce the iconography established in the business card. My experimentation included toning down the opacity of the waves that frame the content of the letter, including the logo icon as well as the wordmark, using only a layer of strata or two, and using floating music notes, but the choices weren't justified by other design materials and/or didn't work on other materials.
Instead I fully leaned into it, embracing the bolder, more distinctive direction that didn't contain the lighter colors or negative space of other letterheads. The waves on the top offered a balancing element and framing device, drawing more attention to the content of the letter. The waves on the bottom function as a visual stopping point reinforced by the design, and mild "discovery" for reading through the letter to the bottom.
The Vinyl Mockup
The idea for this part of the project stemmed from wanting to design for an abnormal circumstance, and adding a generic vinyl label mockup for a company that specialized in rediscovering, revitalizing, and recirculating old music seemed like a perfect fit for the
brand. In this situation, perhaps the original record didn't have artwork or the artwork couldn't be found, and so a generic label would be used, or maybe a label was needed for test prints to accurately depict what was on a record for administrative purposes.
