Varkan is a heavy metal band based out of Phoenix, Arizona,
and I was approached by them to help them with a new logo and refresh for new music and shows they were beginning to promote for. I was asked by the band to help them come up with a new logo that would reflect their musical and aesthetic influences. Their previous logo design was inspired and represents a love for classic heavy metal music, and with that I wanted to create something that is more modern but feels nostalgic of the 80’s.
The first Iteration of the new Logo featured this bastardized gothic text and an exploration of a purple and green main color scheme with Lunar elements as accents, but the main issue was the “V” looked like it spelled “Jarkan” and the strokes around the colors were hard to read from a distance, especially with the Shadows moving forward to the next letters..
The next addition to the logo was a take on the “Synth-Wave Sun”. The band and I appreciate the aesthetic of that particular Sun looks and we wanted something similar but felt somewhat different. The final decision was made to make it look like a moon to match the sort of horror/gothic look of the logo
I reversed the direction the shadow was going and also shortened the length of it as well, and that made the logo more legible clean compared to the first itterations.
We also explored variants in colors to allow for various merch designs to be made
(The Varkan Pride Logo has been a crowd favorite amongst fans of the band as well)