the brief
Mike Senior is a world-renowned recording engineer and sound mixer. He offers several services geared toward small bands and independent musicians, allowing them to achieve professional-level sound/mix quality with their own home equipment.
In his new video series, “Mix Level Up!”, each video starts with a song from an independent artist, as raw or unedited tracks. Mike demonstrates his technique in “mixing” these tracks—i.e. putting them together, using software to boost, dampen, and subtly alter the tracks, to create a song that sounds like it was recorded in a professional studio rather than in someone’s basement—ultimately achieving the sound quality to allow the artist’s work to reach its full potential.
first round
I wanted to create a logo that Mike could use at the beginning of his videos and in promotional materials for the series. Here are some of the initial concepts we explored.
concept 1
Logo concept 1 used the image of a “waveform”, the standard visualization of a sound in most sound-editing software, as well as the colors of safe-medium-loud found on soundboards.
Concept 1: variations
Concept 2: variations
concept 2
Concept 2 leaned on the “levelling up” pun (i.e. sound levels and video game levels), and invoked early digital 8-bit art.
Concept 3: variations
concept 3
Concept 3 made use of an abstract record or dial image to invoke digital and analog music, as well as the idea of polishing a creative product.
This last variation incorporates the logo of Cambridge Music Technology, the parent company.
second round
Mike decided he liked the waveform option the best, since it conveyed all aspects that he wanted it to.
For the second round, I worked on refining this concept further.
options
Mike requested that I put the waveform behind the word “Mix”, which allowed for a lighter weight for the text.
The font I had used for the first round was a modified Reross, an approximation of Bauhaus, the font used in the parent company logo, but which I didn’t have easy access to. For round 2, I showed the logo in actual Bauhaus, but Mike eventually decided he liked the Reross better.
In addition to the font, I also played around with different placements of the waveform.
final round
Mike opted for something quite close to the original form of Concept 1, with just a few tweaks. We changed the yellow of the waveform to a warmer golden that would render better over a wider variety of backgrounds and on different machines, and added some weight to the “Level Up!” line so the lines were more balanced. Mike and I were both thrilled with how the final logo turned out.
See it in action on his website, cambridge-mt.com!
