When bands have a distinctive brand with a unique and creative logo, they tend to stand out on marketing materials and give the band a sense of added professionalism. Because of this I wanted to create a logo for my own band Trial and Tribulation. We often found ourselves referring to the band as T&T, so using that abbreviation, I created a ligature of two capital T's, using negative space between the forms to create the ampersand. Throw in a little (optional) grungy distorted effect, and you have yourself a metal band logo.

The final logo designs, both horizontal and vertical.

My first idea was just to create a custom ligature/acronym. I find ligatures intriguing and frankly beautiful, so creating an acronym that seamlessly combined the two letters was my goal. Combining sans serif 'T's looked too much just like the pi symbol, and regular serif letters appeared too thin and weak for the image I was trying to convey. Because of this I tested several thick and slab serif typefaces. My next thought was to include the ampersand, and this quickly involved into incorporating the ampersand into the negative space, as seen in the final logo.

Some ideas and progress I had while creating the design.

Before releasing songs we had recorded for our EP The Chosen, I decided to create the cover art myself. I photographed it, edited it, and used the logo I had designed. The cover was also used for the band's Facebook cover photo and profile picture, and positioned so that when viewed on a desktop computer, they flowed together as if the cover photo bled into the profile picture.

The logo incorporated on an EP cover photographed and designed by yours truly.

Nifty and fun trick combining the band's Facebook banner and profile image to flow together nicely.

For a class project, we had to create a poster using several different images that represented us. I decided to use that opportunity to create an image composite poster for my band Trial and Tribulation. The band and EP The Chosen that it was for represented me because of the impact music has had on my life, and all the years of work I had put into the band up to that point. The logo is also prominantly featured here.

Each poster students created was printed out, and mine was so well liked by the professors that a second was printed to hang on the wall of one of the BGSU Visual Communication Technology computer labs.

The logo incorporated on an EP cover photographed and designed by yours truly.