Spent a portion of my morning re-building Depeche Mode’s “logo” for an upcoming event my agency is producing for W Hollywood Residences. Quite crazy, but I never thought of rock music as needing branding or really what might go into a band’s logo. Perhaps this is common in the industry, but the logo and “brand” seems to shift for each album that’s produced. I guess there is a bit more at stake with a headline band than the garage-band w/ album art designed by someone’s brothers friend.

While I can’t say DM was ever a band I truly dug back in the day, the Violator album cover is burnt into memory. The juxtaposition of the title “Violator” next to the stark visual of the red rose creates incredible tension and was brilliant. More so, it speaks towards the music.

The new brand appears a mash of 80′s glory – large abstract bars of colors – with abstract images and colorful gradients that are the pop-art of ’06. Much like the new music is almost more 80′s now than it was in the late 80′s. The logo cleverly uses these to “bars” to try and spell the “D” and “M” of the band name, but not quite legibly. One aspect I don’t know the answer to, is how much influence the actual band members have over establishing this look, or if it’s cooked up by their record label and stylists behind the scene.

In all respects, a coherent brand. And while I’m personally not in love w/ the aesthetic, it does do an excellent job of leveraging the old glory of a band who’s been out of the loop for a while aggressively trying to make their look contemporary.

As usual, Steven Heller hits the nail on the head:

“I’ll go out on a limb and say all the logos starting with XVII are based on beer labels,” Steven Heller, a design critic, said in an e-mail message. He added that the latest logo “looks like the Bank of America logo.”

The accompanying selection of “alternative” superbowl logos is sweet too: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/01/28/sports/20090128-logos-slideshow_index.html