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Collective Confusion Records is a New York based independent record label that puts out music on vinyl.

Mike from Collective Confusion was looking for an independent, non-corporate looking logo that had an artistic yet timeless simplicity to it. Collective Confusion Records supports independent artists and release music on limited edition vinyls.

With a brief as clear and simple as that- there wasn' t too much fuss over how to approach this project. Mike,was looking for a new logo and brand image for his new startup and after an initial consultation, we went about discussing some ideas on how to build it's face.

The name was clear, the product/service was descriptive and target audience specific. 

The Collective Confusion Records Asterisk

So what does Collective Confusion mean?- We're all confused. About life, about things, about ideas. And thus the idea of the logo was born from trying to build on the word confusion; and feeling it collectively.

One of the first few things that I tried to work with was the idea of question mark - because that's the first image you get in your head when you think of confusion. And so it started with a "?" and then a bunch of people getting confused together - which led to a circle of ?'s.... a bunch people sitting around confused, together, collectively.

Next, to further build on the concept the idea was,  what if they were thinking of different things in this confusion - confused people going with thoughts going separate ways, but collectively they come together to talk about this. We played with the idea of having the arrows go outward. Then we tried inward. And thus came about the  collective Confusion Asterisk.

Mike personally picks out which artists and records to support and put out on LP - and so we agreed to have a handwritten feel to the font of the logo- to represent just that. And so from the various logos under discussion, option number 4 from the slide below was finalized.

Colour Me Black

We tried to look at the project from many angles, and  also debated the use of colour for the logo. But going monochrome seemed a lot more simple... and elegant.

Mike wanted to be able to use the 'logo asterisk' and slap it on the artwork of any artist that he decided to produce the record for. And so, working with a neutral colour such as grey, white or black became the obvious choice. 

Because the company was about putting out records - which in the modern world is considered a very retro way of listening to music - we decided to give all the brand collateral a very retro treatment. Working with angular lines and minimalistic design styles,  the stationery was designed to reflect this retro philosophy. The design style then went on to be incorporated into the web-store and blog as well.

 

 

Final Deliverables

Brand (Logo) Design,
Business Cards
Letterhead and Envelopes
Wix Web Design
Collective Confusion Blog
Bigcartel store