Design Work Life: Cataloging Inspiration Daily

UK-based stu­dio Believe in recently com­pleted an iden­tity and sta­tionery project for Christophe Szpajdel, aka Lord of the Logos:

The work fol­lows the Gestalten pub­li­ca­tion of the Lord of the Logos book in 2010, show­cas­ing a selec­tion of the close to 10,000 logos that Christophe has cre­ated in his career so far. He has worked for many of the biggest bands within the Black Metal and Death Metal under­ground music scenes. His work has been fea­tured in numer­ous gal­leries, pub­li­ca­tions and blogs both in Europe and America, notably and most recently at the Walker Arts Centre in Minneapolis.

Christophe has been a long time friend of the Believe in stu­dio, and this project pro­vided a great oppor­tu­nity to reflect a more play­ful dimen­sion to Christophe and his work. Believe in’s Managing and Creative Director Blair Thomson lead the col­lab­o­ra­tion, and explained some of the thinking:

“However dark and intim­i­dat­ing his work can be seen as, Christophe is a great col­lab­o­ra­tor with a desire to apply his tal­ents as broadly as pos­si­ble. We wanted to pre­serve the spirit and the alchemy of his work, but also build a more acces­si­ble side to the iden­tity through the applications.”

The core Lord of the Logos logo is Christophe’s own, but now forms the cen­tral ele­ment in a wider iden­tity, that includes a new ‘stag’s skull’ icon, word­mark and sup­port­ing typog­ra­phy. The let­ter­press print and tac­tile paper stocks reflect the painstak­ing atten­tion to detail that goes into Christophe’s work, and the wax seal adds a dra­matic flour­ish to his correspondence.

“What we’ve designed should open up all man­ner of future col­lab­o­ra­tions with peo­ple who are intrigued by what Christophe does, and who are keen to bring his unique style to bear on their own projects. On top of that, it was a lot of fun.”

Materials Business cards printed let­ter­press gold on 700gsm Ebony Colorplan by The Print Project, Bradford. Letterheads printed black on 120gsm Curious Metallic Gold Leaf by Kingfisher, Totnes. Wax Seal Stamp from Custom Wax n’ Seals in Birmingham.