Matthew Teagle conducted research to inform the logo design for a fictional music company owned by Arctic Monkeys lead singer Alex Turner called TurnerVerse. His research found that logos in the music industry commonly use simplistic designs with black and white colors and incorporate musical elements like records, guitars, or notes. Teagle then sketched out initial concepts for the TurnerVerse logo including using guitars, the initials "TV" designed to convey the company's energy and style, or placing the initials inside a guitar pick to combine iconography with the company name.

1. Matthew Teagle – De Montfort
University - New Media Design
Portfolio
Logo Design Research

2. For my logo design, I wanted to create a logo for a
fictional music company that would be owned by
Arctic Monkeys lead singer and musical icon, Alex
Turner. As an avid fan of both Arctic Monkeys and
Alex Turner, I felt that I could easily come up with
unique ideas for a logo design that would convey
the energy and style of his music. When it comes
to a large sector such as the music industry, I
thought that there would be so much research
that I could do to inform my designs and my final
logo design because of the many different artists,
brands and companies involved with the
production and distribution of music. The first
thing that I noticed about the logos that I
researched such as the ones to the right, was that
they were often very simplistic and basic when it
came to colours. The primary colours used were
usually black and white, occasionally with another
secondary colour. Black and white is significant to
musicians because music is simply written in these
colours, and this is often reinforced by musical
notes such as quavers being used as part of the
actual logo designs. It is all about how the
musician reads music and how the logo convey
that to their audiences. Also, there is frequently
the use of records, or instruments such as guitars
incorporated within the logo somewhere.

3. Yet again, these logo designs are relatively simple, there is
very little detail to them. These are further examples of
generic logos from the music industry, using iconography
such as vinyls and electric guitars so that consumers are
aware of the fact that the company specializes in that
specific field. These three logos all incorporate the
standard black and white designs with a tint of red, the
bright contrast between red and black seems to be used a
lot in these designs. The logos are often very two-
dimensional and without any real depth or shadowing.

4. I used this research to do sketch out some initial
ideas about how I could design my logo. I had
thought of a name for the company that I would be
creating the logo for, which was TurnerVerse. I felt
that this worked well because it suggested a universe
of Alex Turner’s music, however as one of the
greatest lyricists of the generation, the verse can also
be associated with verses of his music. After my
research, I decided that I wanted to come up with 3
different concepts that all had different qualities. My
sketches mainly consisted of guitars as Alex Turner
himself is the lead guitarist of the Arctic Monkeys
and an instrument that he is heavily associated with,
therefore this not only reinforces his influence on the
company but also the musical nature of it. A simpler
idea, that I was much more drawn to was the idea of
using the initials of TurnerVerse (TV) as the logo, and
designing these letters in a way that conveyed the
energy and style that this company would bring to
the music industry. Using the lettering inside a guitar
pick was another way of incorporating musical
iconography with the initials of the company and one
that I was most interested in developing.