When band logos go bad

I like logos. I’m a logo nerd. Logos are some of my favorite things to look at and design, albeit not always successful. Good logos are hard to design. I think logos are special to design because while they are meant to communicate, they don’t have to be straight forward.

Some logos are simply the name of the company in a fancy font. Some logos are abstract designs that mean nothing when taken out of context. Some logos combine the two. And many, many, many logos are just poor. What makes a poor logo? Well, lots of things: poor colors, lack of readability, too detailed, not enough detail…the list can go on. But I think one of the most important things that a logo must do is create a feeling.

Being a fan of logos and rock music, I enjoy band logos. Some of the most memorable logos come from music, and if you want to see a wide range of successful and poor logos, look no further than your local Hot Topic store. Being in the radio biz, I see a lot of band logos cross my desk. But one problem I’ve found bands have is logo inconsistency. It seems bands these days get a new logo every time they release an album. Not only is that a failure of Branding 101, it can change the “taste” of a band instantly.

Let me try a little experiment here, and be honest. Look at this band logo:

Based on that logo, what type of music do you think the band plays?

Now listen to the band’s most recent song:

Do you think that logo matches that music? I don’t think so. The logo is very heavy metal in that Slipknot-I-scream-and-kill-people way and doesn’t represent the band well at all. I know nobody goes to the record store anymore, but if you’re not a heavy metal fan but you are a pop rock fan, you’d see this album on the shelf and probably not look because the logo is very painful. And in my case, having heard and listened to the All-American Rejects in the past, when I saw this logo I thought they had switched genres, only to find out they had not.

All-American Rejects appears to be one of these bands that changes logos all too often. Recently at work I had to design a promotional page for an AAR concert. Since I wasn’t given any “official” elements from the record label, I went out and found a logo that matched the theme I wanted. I picked this logo:

It’s readable even in small sizes, bright, clear, and frankly, fits the band’s music really well. It has that college-trendy look with a dash of retro sci-fi. But then after the page was done (and public for four days), the label came squawking back about the logo and made me change it to the death metal logo. Not only is that logo trash, but it COMPLETELY changed the tone/theme of my design and ruined it.

However, there is one area where the thrash metal logo works - drawability. My wife laid out a wonderful rule for successful band logos. A band logo must be able to be sketched by a fourth grader. Think about back when you were in school and drawing on your jean jacket, book cover, and on the top of desks. You want a logo that is simple enough to draw quickly, but a logo that is powerful to communicate something about the band. Just look at AC/DC, Def Leppard, KISS, Rolling Stones, Weezer, and Led Zeppelin’s “Zoso,” to name a few successful band logos. The new Rejects logo does fit the bill in that it’s a simple shape that can be drawn pretty easily on your Trapper Keeper.

While the All-American Rejects logo succeeds in being somewhat drawable, it fails horribly at telling people about their music. Plus, for all I know, it could be logo #12 for the band, which is another problem entirely. One thing you’ll note about the list of successful logos is that they rarely deviated as time went on. So here’s some free advice to the All-American Rejects, get a better logo and stick with it. And creating some good music might not hurt either, but I hear that’s less important these days.