challenge… accepted
When I was asked to try and capture a band name as a custom hand-lettered logo, I was excited. The band is actually a DJ duo, and the music they play is techno. Or techno-ish, at least. Their name, “Maschine Maschine”, says it all. The brief I got was to “make the letters look handwritten, but the machine-part should come through as well.” So I went to work looking for inspiration in my lettering books, and came up with a few ideas.
 

We tried out the bottom idea a bit, but it seemed too digital, not hand-lettered enough. So I went back to square one.

think before you draw
I thought about what a hand-lettered logo that should look hand-lettered but technical might entail. And I started playing around with reducing the letters and having them flow into each other. Much like in a machine, the parts of the machine must work together for the whole thing to work.

After trying out this idea in various forms to see if it was legible enough, it was approved by the client. (Yay!)

I then went on trying to perfect the letterforms and to get the hand-lettered sketch as perfect as possible before inking it.

After digitizing the font, I printed it out to see if it worked in different variations. I turned it upside down, added a line, deleted a line, went back to the computer and worked on the letterforms some more.

the launch
Once it was officially “perfect”, the duo decided to launch their new logo on T-shirts that they’d sell at a street party. It takes place once a year and has real good turnout, plus they had a gig booked there.
So I integrated the existing logo (done by Teresa Stillebacher) into the lettered logo, and went to the silk-screen printer’s.

And then we waited. Just under a week later, the shirts were ready, and consequently sold at the street party last Saturday.

So there’s the workflow of my first custom logo. Thanks again to Maschine Maschine for the job, Teresa Stillebacher (existing logo), and all the party people who bought the shirts!