B.TAN (DJ/Producer)
SUMMARY
B. Tan is DJ and music producer from Memphis, Tennessee focusing on electronic and hip hop music. After years passed from creating his first logo, B.Tan wanted to update his logo mark and create a proper style guide that will soon develop into an identity system.
Client
B. Tan (Music Producer and DJ)
Industry
Personal Branding
Date / Duration
02 / 2023 1.5 months
Services
Discovery & Research
Logo & Brand Identity Design
Brand Style Guide
Collateral Design
CHALLENGE
While preserving the established visual identity of B.Tan's personal brand, our objective was to integrate a distinctive motif that resonates with his audience. Additionally, mindful of the original objectives of his previous logo mark, our focus was directed towards refining and advancing the retro cyberpunk style in a manner that enhances legibility and recognition.
OUTCOME
An updated logo mark and brand guidelines to help build B.Tan’s online presence.
New logo mark debut on his anniversary of starting his career.
Cohesive branding with online presence and collateral.
Development of brand positioning and expanding his audience outside of Tennessee.
Through an extensive discovery session, we were able to find out the current missing assets that would allow B.Tan to properly visually brand himself on all of his social media platforms and marketplaces. From there, we began the journey to understand his end-goal and what key areas we can enhance to create his new brand identity and logo mark. This process took about 6 weeks with 3 rounds of revisions.
WHAT HAPPENED?
Much of the inspirations provided involved intricate details resembling an owl. We had to develop a design that allows for the reception of a owl, but simplifying the details to be recognizable.
After reaching an approval on the design, our secondary task was to transform the mark to match the cyberpunk nuance of the word mark.
Explore a variety of possibilities to chose for his brand assets that do not conflict with this brand concept direction, but still provide a professional and legible visual output.
CHALLENGES:
Strategy & Approach
Understand who B.Tan is
as a person and producer
Through a 3-hour discovery session, we were able to find the missing holes to what his personal brand does not have to main consistency in his visual online presence. His journey began making music and slowly when an audience developed, they did know where to find him or recognize him besides his own face. Despite how easy it may be to recognize his face, his brand was missing a persona in which he can creatively explore with this music. Thus through this branding project, we wanted to properly give birth to B.Tan, the DJ and music producer and not Brandon Tan a person who can DJ and make music.
Defining the Brand
B.Tan draws significant inspiration from the "Night Owl" persona, finding resonance with the characteristics of the great horned owl. This inspiration profoundly influenced our design direction, leading us to develop a cyberpunk rendition of the great horned owl's face. The conceptual framework envisioned the logo as a neon sign illuminating the night, akin to the iconic image of an owl's face in the darkness. Considering B.Tan's predominant engagement in music production during nocturnal hours, this thematic approach aligns seamlessly with his brand identity.
Understanding the User
Since this was personal branding project, we wanted to cater towards who B.Tan was, the qualities of his work, and the persona he was aiming to create for his audience. Most, if not all, of his listeners were part of the nightlife scene. Understanding that, it make more sense to run toward the symbolism of a “night owl.”
The Brand’s Positioning
As he B.Tan started to reveal his new branding alongside his anniversary of starting his career, his music started to blend well with his visual persona. B.Tan crafts a lot of EDM and electronic music which ties greatly with the cyberpunk notion we were aiming for. With his audience, when they see the owl symbol, they can expect B.Tan’s music to show up like Batman and his bat signal.
Brand Refresh
Merging the cyberpunk culture
with the night owl persona
From the very first logo mark created to represent B.Tan’s music, there was a neon-like cyberpunk influence to it. B.Tan struggled to manifest his vision of bringing the cyberpunk reality to his night own personality. We decided to bring it literally and transform a night owl into a cyberpunk version.
Brand Implementation
Crafting the Brand Design Identity
With a proper brand logo mark and word mark, it opened a way for us to develop his brand guide. This guide a comprehensive manual on typography, color palette usage, and a variety of other guidelines to keep his branding consistent. This served as the basis for him to share with other designers making content to promote his name.
And then the results!
The persona that Brandon Tan dreamed for is now alive. B.Tan, the DJ, the music producer, and the night owl started to spread all over Memphis Tennessee and now in the Texas area. His brand has worked with several up and coming music artists as well as gaining the attention of various videographers as he started to expand into making scores for short films.
