This year National Album Day is on the 10th of October and has an 80’s theme so creativebyte were asked to create new branding and brand guidelines to reflect that iconic period in time. The brief was simple, inject some funky 80’s groove, but make sure the new logo design did not stray too far from the original so its audience were in no doubt it was still National Album Day, but with a difference.
So, where to start? Well back to the 80’s of course, who could forget the big hair, the Rubik’s Cube and Pac Man, but also those fashion disasters… the shell suits, the neon and multi-colour lycra clothing, maybe the 80’s will not be remembered for it’s fashion. But the one constant seems to be neon, it was everywhere and not just the colour of your socks, it featured throughout on art, design, photography and on album covers. Funky patterns, chrome and futuristic backgrounds were thrown into the mix as well, it was almost like the 80’s just exploded with colour!
There was also a surge in technology and in 1979 the music cd was born, up until this point your go-to for listening to your favourite music was either the vinyl album or if you were on the move then the trusty cassette tape was the thing, how strange now that vinyl is staging a comeback. One thing the 80’s will be remembered for is some great albums.
So after some research and a little trip down memory lane we produced a range of visuals and submitted them to ERA and the BPI who unanimously approved the neon logo design in the images below. We also put in a lot of effort when creating the new logo, brand and assets to make sure they would work across all digital and print formats. So we produced versions in RGB and CMYK and a simplified logo as well for when it is used small or in mono. All of this was then put together within the guidelines with clear instructions on how to use, along with several mock-ups / examples.
It’s been another great project to work on for ERA and BPI and we wish the National Album Day another successful year… why not get out some of your 80’s albums or go to www.nationalalbumday.co.uk for some inspiration.
