Livin’ Hard and Ridin’ Fast

Earlier today someone asked me, “Do you have a site or a blog I could check to see some of your work?” Which reminded me that I do actually. And with that realization came the one that I’ve been sitting on some news for quite a while now.

My last post was about the new Cardinal logo which I ended by noting that I was working on several more. And well some of them, they are about done and with others, progress is being made.

While on the subject of band art, I also want to mention — if I haven’t done so in a previous blog entry — that I completed designing my first fully-illustrated album cover. The band members were so pleased with the design that they also had it printed as an on-stage backdrop of about ten by six feet. And it’s already seen some live use at a gig last weekend. Even so, the band have requested me not to show it in full just yet because they want to do a big reveal for the label and their fans in an official kind of way sometime soon.

I can show you, however, something entirely else — a cartoon I recently finished drawing. There’s a bit a of a story behind it, the details of which I’ll recount at a later date, probably sometime later this week. So for now, just enjoy what you see here.

Cardinal

About thirteen years ago, Cardinal — a Deathgrind band from the Netherlands — were the first to commission me to design a logo.

This week I decided to redesign it in honor of — something special. Well, that plus the fact that I lost the original source files, and only had some low-resolution files on my computer. Just as well, really, because I never quite liked the original logo to begin with. The band, however, did express their fondness of it, and so I decided to stay close to it when I redesigned it.

Let me know which one you like best.

In other news … I finished my work on the album cover for Dauthuz‘ long-awaited full debut album; I’m currently working on a handful of personal and commissioned logo designs (Black Metal, Death Metal, Stoner Rock, and something Ambient); and as always, I’m also busy doing cartooning.

Witches of Dune

So, uh, I made this illustration some time ago for Witches of Dune, an alternative, all-female rock band from the Netherlands.

It’s just a neat, simple design. But it made for a welcome change from my usual work.

By the way, the idea behind the design is that — well, it resembles the alchemical earth symbol and, at the same time, it lends a “Dune” feel to their lettered logo. (You know, what with the Bene Gesserit being the witches of — exactly.)

 

Throwback Time

I just posted a #Throwbackthursday image of a logo I designed for a death metal band some years ago and in doing so, it sent me on a trip down memory lane. Now as you may or may not know, I used to be a prolific logo designer in the heavy metal underground — though not as prolific as one particular other logo designer, you know who I’m talking about. Between the years of 2004 and 2008, I was actively engaged in the scene and churned out a lot of logos for bands of various renown, mostly local but some national — and the odd international one. In later years, I just designed sporadically logos for people I got to know during those years (like recently, for example, the Dauthuz logo). Today I decided to make a collage of some of those logos.

There’s a story behind all these band logos.

• First column, top: El Barejo, a band inspired by Asesino featuring none other than my girlfriend’s first boyfriend. The band went on hiatus before even releasing a demo.
• First column, middle: Cardinal, a brutal grindcore band from the Netherlands, founded and led by Dennis Jak of Nembrionic and Unlord fame. I had drawn logos before, but this was my first for a somewhat high-profile figurehead of the Dutch heavy metal scene.
• First column, bottom: Deicide, a key band in the Florida death metal scene. Glen Benton needed a new logo due to legal issues and, through a contact of mine, I got to re-design it. When the judicial dust had settled, they deciced to revert back to their old logo. And rightly so — it’s just too iconic. But I did get from them a hoodie printed with my logo on it!

• Second column, top: Fleshbound, a Swedish death metal band featuring members of Lord Belial. I was given a tight deadline for a fleshed-out (half-pun intended) design. The band never took off: they didn’t even release a single.
• Second column, middle: Hivernatum, a pretend black metal band featuring me and my girlfriend. Some people claim to have seen us live on stage.
• Second column, bottom; third column, middle: two logo designs I presented to Dauthuz; the former logo, an Old School one similar to Entombed‘s, drawn freehand, digitally; the latter, a logo in my signature style, jagged and smooth. Of course, they picked the former.

• Third column, top: Hatred, a brutal death metal band from the Netherlands. It took me about four different designs (and about the same amount of years) before they finally accepted one. Shortly after, but not before the low-key release of their long-awaited follow-up to their 2003 EP Chaos in the Flesh, they disbanded.
• Third column, bottom: Necryptic, a death metal band from Eugene, Oregon. I think this was my first or second fully digitally designed logo.

• Fourth column, top: Nelchael’s Throne, a “trve” Austrian black metal band who wanted a Darkthrone-like logo. These guys are so underground, they’re actually mainstream in China. Joking aside, I don’t know if they ever got to write some songs. But apparently, according to the Interweb, they’re still active. I’m just guessing here, but I think they’re slumbering somewhere, waiting for their summons into Hell’s Army.
• Fourth column, middle: Toxocara, yet another Dutch death metal band, this one featuring (ex-)members of The Monolith Deathcult (whose logo, by the way, I also designed), God Dethroned, Prostitute Disfigurement, and Katafalk. They also disbanded, but hey, at least they released several full-length albums before disbanding. As for the logo, it was my last traditionally (i.e., with pen and paper) drawn logo.
• Fourth column, bottom: Soul Scythe, another death metal band from… well, you guessed it, Eugene, Oregon. And yes, there were even more bands from this place called Eugene who asked me to design a logo. Which is funny, really. I wouldn’t know where to place it on a map, but for some reason I made some name for myself there — more, far more even than I ever did here in my hometown of Rotterdam!