Zardos Demon

This logo was created so that I could experiment a little further with dual-language logos. I had thought about creating a logo that features Hideto Matsumoto (hide) and decided that a fan club would work best for what I had in mind.

To create the icon, I traced a photo that I had found on the internet. I did my tracing in layers so that I could easily alter the shapes later. I didn't want to use too much detail because it might become too distracting. Once I had finished the tracing, I contained the shapes in a rounded rectangle which I thought would look the best. I had planned from the beginning to have hide's hair overlapping the rectangle so that I could give the logo some depth. The only piece of shading that I have used on the icon is on the shoulders of the full colour logo so that I could make it easier to define where his hair stops and the shoulders begin. I encountered a problem when I put the colour logo on a pink background as it blended in with the hair colour. The problem was solved by adding a black glow to the outer edges of the hair. By doing that, it added quite a lot of depth to the icon and I am proud of the result.

Next, it was time to create the text. I didn't want anything too fancy because I don't think it would have been hide's style. What I did want was a pair of fonts that looked similar enough for the two languages. For the English title, I vertically straightened a font named Crillee and used it to match the Japanese font, MS PGothic. To make the title text relate a little more stylistically, I added a heart shape from one of hide's well known guitars to the English superscript dots and the Japanese plosive marks.

For the colours, it was obvious. During the final years of hide's career he had pink hair. He also had a song titled 'Pink Spider' which is where I took the brand name from. Black and white were used because they are very simple colours. I decided not to used any other colours because I could see that the pink would give the logo quite a 'pop' even though it is the predominant colour. Also, if I were to use more colours, then I would have found it difficult to create the black and white versions later.

If this logo were to be used in the real world, it would be perfect for a website that had a forum. The icon would also look good on clothing and other merchandise. Overall, it was a fun experiment and I hope that I have done hide's legacy justice.