Music is a powerful motivator!

It can inspire us to move in a certain way, give us confidence, make us melancholy, bring up old memories in the most vivid way.

It is this power to influence us, that makes music a powerful creative force in design practice. Have you ever used music to inspire you on a particular design?

I have been working on a logo design and new corporate ID for a company that specializes in high end treats for the gourmet foods market, and the whole thing has me thinking about Marie Antoinette. Now, forget for a moment that the woman lost her head, or said, “Let them eat cake!” but rather think about the era and finesse during that time of opulence.

Her life coincided almost exactly with that of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and they were both in fact, Austrian. 

Mozart is of course an undisputed genius, and his music has been proven to aid concentration in that it vibrates at a level which causes something called Beta waves in the brain, even now as I sit typing with The Magic Flute: Act I playing on iTunes I feel absolutely focused and able to compose my thoughts in a logical and straightforward manner.

But this does not mean that his music is serious by any means, it is the perfect accompaniment to designing a business logo centured around bon bons, meringues and other delectably over the top yummities.

His music conjures up visions of silk and satin, pastel palettes, damask, velvet brocade, silver hair brushes and candlesticks, powdered wigs, court dancing and gentility and frivolity and excess all going on in an opulent environment, never mind that there was a revolution brewing outside, they lived in their own richly decorated reality.

This is the same feeling that my clients products would like you to experience, when all the world is spinning around you, take the time to indulge a little or a lot!

So do not be afraid to look to the masters of old, for inspiration.

So many of them were well before their time, and you needn’t stick to your own brand of culture (i.e. artists) for inspiration, but look for composers, sculptors, architects and others.

Innovation is often found in the past.

What music do you design to? Do you tailor your playlists around the current work you’re doing? Or do you use a more generic type of music to work to?

I love doing logo design.

Particularly when one has such delicious subject matter to deal with!

David Airey is a graphic designer whose work I really admire, and he is well respected throughout the industry.

He set out 5 principles for good logo design in a recent blog post:

1. It’s describable
2. It’s memorable
3. It’s effective without colour
4. It’s scalable (works whether it’s large or small)
5. It’s relevant to the industry in question

You can read the rest of his post here.

I agree with all of the above points, but in the practice of designing a logo, sometimes it’s difficult to bring these points across when you have a client who has just started their very first business, and has an idea of what they want their logo to look like, and that ‘look’ has all sorts of gradients and drop shadows in it.

However, having said that, even though as a designer we may know what is best (or think we do!) ultimately, my goal is to make sure I have a happy client who is going to recommend my services to everyone they meet.

This is why it’s important to present at least three concepts to a client. I usually present 2 which go along with the principles of good design, and then a third, which is exactly what the client asks for.

More often than not, the finished design will be somewhere toward my side of the scale, but still in a place that the client is delighted with.

Ultimately, it’s great to be able to bring a client around to your way of thinking. But if they leave your studio with a design with which they are going to sing your praises, and they have paid your bill in full, then consider it a job well done.

Here is a recent logo that I am still working on for a client.

The text still needs quite a bit of work, and right now the client has a preference for the last one in the series which I am glad about, as it will work beautifully in grayscale, and the entire concept has yet to be finalised, but so far so good!

Incidentally the background for this preview was thrown together quickly to best show off the logo designs with corresponding colours, and the client likes it so much that I’m going to incorporate it into the final website design as well.